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Mem­bers of Venezuela ’s op­po­si­tion, pris­on­ers’ rights groups and rel­a­tives of peo­ple long de­tained for po­lit­i­cal rea­sons gave a luke­warm re­cep­tion Fri­day to an amnesty mea­sure ex­pect­ed to free hun­dreds of ac­tivists and hu­man rights de­fend­ers.

Some viewed the law as a small but sig­nif­i­cant vic­to­ry for the thou­sands tar­get­ed dur­ing the rul­ing par­ty’s 27-year tenure. Oth­ers con­sid­ered it a mock­ery of the pain of fam­i­lies and peo­ple be­hind bars — par­tic­u­lar­ly mem­bers of the mil­i­tary, who were ex­clud­ed from the mea­sure.

Venezuela’s act­ing Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­dríguez on Thurs­day signed the amnesty mea­sure in­to law, sig­nalling a ma­jor shift in pol­i­cy fol­low­ing last month’s stun­ning U.S. mil­i­tary raid in the cap­i­tal, Cara­cas, to cap­ture then-Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro.