Por Rocío Muñoz-Ledo, CNN en Español

La aprobación de la ley de amnistía impulsada por la presidenta encargada de Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, se estancó este jueves en la Asamblea Nacional tras la falta de consenso sobre el artículo 7, cuya redacción sobre quién puede acogerse a la medida podría afectar a opositores en el exilio.

La segunda discusión —ya se aprobó en primera discusión la semana pasada— sobre la legislación, llamada Ley de Amnistía para Convivencia Democrática, se aplazó para la próxima semana después de que los diputados aprobaran los primeros seis artículos, hasta que el debate se interrumpió en el 7°, que establece que la amnistía abarca “a toda persona que se encuentre o pueda ser procesada o condenada por delitos o faltas acaecidos en el marco de los hechos objeto de amnistía, siempre que esté a derecho o se ponga a derecho”.

La oposición objeta la frase final, “siempre que esté a derecho o se ponga a derecho”, que podría excluir a todos los líderes opositores en el exilio, incluidos Edmundo González Urrutia y María Corina Machado, advierte en entrevista con CNN Gonzalo Himiob, presidente de la organización no gubernamental Foro Penal.

Himiob explica que “estar a derecho o ponerse a derecho” significa que la persona tendría que presentarse ante tribunales o autoridades venezolanas, lo que podría ponerla en riesgo de ser detenida de inmediato.

“Si la ley se aprueba cómo está, son muy claros, la persona va a venir a Venezuela y probablemente en el mismo aeropuerto va a ser detenida, va a ser privada de su libertad, sin garantías de que después se le decrete en su favor”, consideró

La vicepresidenta de la comisión especial a cargo de la ley, la diputada opositora Nora Bracho, dijo ante la prensa que solicitaron el diferimiento por “desacuerdos constitucionales” con el artículo 7.

“Hay muchas personas que ni siquiera han sido presentadas ante los tribunales, hay personas con desaparición forzosa, hay situaciones innumerables. Por eso solicitamos el diferimiento para que en comisión se discuta y se debata lo mejor posible. Queremos una ley amplia, que acoja a muchos y a quienes se sienten perseguidos”, dijo Bracho.

Himiob señaló que, si la ley exige que las personas se presenten ante tribunales para acogerse a la amnistía, debería quedar claro que quienes regresen no correrán peligro de ser detenidos.

“De otra manera, es muy poco sensato pedirle a una persona que venga a Venezuela a ponerse a derecho a que quede presa para luego solicitar la aplicación de la amnistía. Eso no tendría sentido si lo que se quiere es reincorporar a la mayor cantidad de ciudadanos posibles a la vida política y social de Venezuela. En esos términos, yo no vería sensato que ellos regresaran al país, por lo menos no mientras no termina de desmontarse el aparato represivo”, explicó.

El proyecto de ley propone que la amnistía general alcanzaría a todas las personas que hayan sido procesadas o condenadas por la presunta o comprobada “comisión de delitos políticos o conexos” entre el 1 de enero de 1999 al 30 de enero de 2026.

Tras la operación militar estadounidense que resultó en la captura de Nicolás Maduro y su esposa, Cilia Flores, el Gobierno del presidente Donald Trump ha intensificado su presión sobre la presidenta encargada de Venezuela para que libere a todos los presos políticos.

Foro Penal calcula que en Venezuela permanecen encarceladas más de 600 personas por motivos políticos. Aunque la cifra ha disminuido en las últimas semanas luego de que el Gobierno anunciara la liberación de “un número importante de personas”, organizaciones civiles y familiares consideran que el ritmo de las excarcelaciones ha sido lento. Hasta el momento, se han registrado más de 400

OXNARD, Calif. (KEYT) – On Oct. 16 of last year, Leo Martinez, an activist with local immigrant rights group VC Defensa, was recording federal immigration operations when agents drove their vehicle into truck he was driving, claimed he had hit them, and then took him into custody.

Videos, images, and accounts that came out the same day and since then have revealed a very different version of events that directly contradict statements made by federal agents to local dispatchers and responding officers.

The difference between what was captured on camera and what was reported by federal agents was something Oxnard Police Department's Chief of Police Jason Benites noted to Your News Channel back in October.

"At about 11 AM, a video surfaced on social media. The video depicts a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee, driven by ICE agents, broadsiding a grey Nissan Frontier. The person who was arrested by the agents is driving the Nissan. Though the video does not tell the entire story, such as what may have preceded the video, it calls to question what may have transpired."

Martinez was eventually taken from the scene by federal agents to Las Robles Medical Center in Thousand Oaks and was released from a federal detention facility in Los Angeles around 3 p.m. the same day.

He was told he was facing charges related to the incident, but he has yet to be formally charged in any jurisdiction.

Your News Channel interviewed Martinez after his release and he shared footage from inside his truck that captured elements of the incident that do not match the accounts provided to Ventura County dispatchers and Oxnard Police officers by federal agents.

To confirm what happened before Martinez was taken away by federal agents from the dirt lot off of A Street in Oxnard back in October, Your News Channel reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the Oxnard Police Department before filing requests through the California Public Records Act for the local police department as well as a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the federal agency.

While the federal government responded to Your News Channel's questions with an indirect statement about the incident followed by a blanket denial of Your News Channel's FOIA request for more information, the local police agency did comply with state disclosure laws by providing written accounts from two of the involved officers with the Oxnard Police Department, Read more

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By Stefano Pozzebon, CNN

Anzoátegui State, Venezuela (CNN) — It’s a scenario that seemed impossible just 40 days ago: A high-ranking US official walking side by side with Venezuela’s leader to discuss investments in the country.

Yet that was the scene Thursday when US Energy Secretary Chris Wright toured oil producing facilities in the South American nation with its acting president Delcy Rodríguez.

As they walked through the sprawling tank farm of compressors, valves and hissing pipes, Wright was shown a small fraction of the enormous energy potential trapped under Venezuela’s soil, as the US moves to control sales of the country’s oil.

During the tour, US and Venezuelan flags stood side by side at the facility the group visited, and Rodríguez held several conversations in English, a language she perfectly mastered after studying in the UK but that she declined to speak in public for years for political reasons.

Thursday’s visit was full of smiles, laughs and handshakes – a stunning reversal in international affairs less than two months after a US Delta Force operation captured Rodríguez’s predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, before detaining him in the US on drug-related charges.

Wright’s visit is part of a two-day trip to Venezuela that also included a formal reception at the Presidential Palace in Caracas on Wednesday. Maduro’s name was only mentioned once on the first day, Wright told CNN, because the trip was to discuss business, not politics.

“North of $100 million will be invested to upgrade and increase the throughput capacity of this facility,” Wright said live on CNN from Petropiar, an oil processing plant operated in a joint venture between US energy giant Chevron and the Venezuelan public oil company PDVSA.

“They’re on target to double production in that particular field in the next 12 to 18 months and probably quintuple it over the next five years,” Wright added.

“This is the way forward. This is the path of cooperation, and it is the agenda for a long-term productive partnership,” Rodríguez told CNN.

Until very recently, Rodríguez used to have a markedly different tone for the US administration, saying on January 26 that Venezuela would not accept mandates or orders coming down from Washington.

On Thursday, Wright was quick to point to the consequences Venezuela would face if the newly found cooperation was reverted: “The leverage we have is we control the flow of the dominant industry of Venezuela. We control the flow of funds from oil. (Rodríguez) wants to work with us.”

A new long-term relation

The group was joined by the new US Chargé d’Affaires to Venezuela Laura Dogu, who has moved to Caracas less than two weeks ago and is now working to build up on the relation.

“We are working a fast-paced agenda to strengthen our bilateral cooperation,” Rodríguez told CNN, “Chevron has been here for a hundred years, and they are doing fantastic work,” she said.

Over the last 20 years, successive Venezuelan governments under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez almost brough the oil industry to a standstill by threatening foreign companies with expropriations.

Conoco Philips CEO Ryan Lance recently suggested the new government should pay back millions of dollars in unpaid debt if it was serious about a new business relation.

Venezuela has operated a series of U-