Venezuela says it has freed more than 400 people from prison as part of an ongoing release process, though local rights groups dispute the figure and say only 60 to 70 detainees have been released in recent days.
National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez announced the releases without providing a timeline. The pledge follows public statements last week by Rodríguez and U.S. President Donald Trump that large numbers of detainees would be freed as a peace gesture after what officials in both countries described as the U.S. capture of President Nicolás Maduro.
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The releases cut to the heart of a longstanding demand by Venezuela’s opposition: the freeing of people it considers political prisoners. The government has repeatedly denied holding anyone for political reasons. It says it has already released most of the roughly 2,000 people detained after protests over the contested 2024 election.
Concrete figures remain unclear. Venezuela’s penitentiary authority said 116 people had been freed. Local NGOs tracking the detentions say between 60 and 70 have been released since Thursday, and they have criticized what they call a slow, opaque process with little official information about who is being freed or on what terms.
Foro Penal, a prominent legal aid group, said at least 800 political prisoners were behind bars at the start of the year. Families and human rights advocates have accused authorities of abusive treatment of detainees, including denial of medical care, the use of solitary confinement, restricted access to legal counsel and, in some cases, torture.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who is expected to meet with Trump, has been among the most vocal critics pressing for the immediate release of detainees, including some of her close allies. The opposition and rights groups are urging authorities to publish verifiable lists of those freed and those still held, and to provide guarantees against re-arrest.
With no comprehensive public roster of released prisoners and varying claims from government and civil society, the scope and durability of the measure remain uncertain. Officials have called it an ongoing process; advocates say the test will be whether releases are broad, transparent and unconditional, and whether due process protections are enforced for those who remain behind bars.
The conflicting accounts reflect broader distrust between the government and its critics following years of political confrontation and waves of arrests. For families waiting outside prisons, the immediate concern is simpler: getting loved ones home, and ensuring they do not disappear again into a system they say has too often operated in the dark.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
