Venezuelan authorities late Saturday began releasing some of those detained during demonstrations against President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government, a rare goodwill gesture to the opposition at the end of a politically torrid year.Delcy Rodriguez, the president of the assembly and head of its Truth Commission investigating the protests, said that Christmas was "a moment of reconciliation" as she announced the decision to release around 80 people.

Among the first freed was Alfredo Ramos, mayor of the northwestern municipality of Iribarren, who was arrested late July and handed a 15 month sentence, and a dozen police officers from Chacao municipality, an opposition stronghold of Caracas.

State television showed image of Rodriguez meeting with the group.

"You go back to jail for the medical check and then you go home to spend Christmas with your families," she said.

"I feel happy for my freedom," Ramos told journalists upon his release. "It was a hard test, quite difficult."