Fifth day of hunger strike for freedom of Venezuelan political prisoners

RELATIVES of Venezuelan political prisoners staged a fifth day of hunger strike Wednesday on the eve of a parliament sitting they hope will result in passage of a long-awaited amnesty law.

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Outside the “Zona 7” prison in the capital Caracas, four women from an initial group of about a dozen lay on mattresses on the ground, weakened but resolute.

The strike will last “as long as my body can take it,” one of the participants, Narwin Gil, said.

Her brother-in-law, Jose Gregorio Farfan, is among 60 inmates that remain in Zona 7.

There are hundreds more prisoners countrywide whose release family members have been clamouring for, with relatives holding vigils outside prisons in the weeks since the ouster of longtime leader Nicolas Maduro.

Five days after Maduro’s toppling on January 3, an interim government led by Delcy Rodriguez - formerly his vice president - vowed under pressure from Washington to free all political prisoners.