will result in passage of a long-awaited amnesty law. Outside the "Zona 7" prison in the capital Caracas, five 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, told AFP. 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 clamoring 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. But Rodriguez and the rest of what remains of the regime left in power by US President Donald Trump are staunch Maduro acolytes, and some Venezuelans distrust their intentions. The National Assembly has delayed several sittings meant to pass the amnesty bill. Parliament is to reconvene Thursday, but its agenda is not known. A week ago, lawmakers were unable to agree on the wording of an article in the bill on freeing political prisoners.

Critics fear the bill's wording is vague enough to be used by the government to pardon its own and deny freedom to real prisoners of conscience. Rafael Arreaza, a prominent Venezuelan doctor volunteering help to the "Zona 7" families, visited the hunger strikers on Wednesday. "After 100 hours without food, changes in the body become very evident," he told AFP. "I had to remove one woman from the strike because she suffered a very serious hypertensive crisis." (Bssnews)