Venezuela Releases Imprisoned Activists01/09 06:04

   

   GUATIRE, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela released a number of imprisoned 
high-profile opposition figures, activists and journalists -- both citizens and 
foreigners -- Thursday in what the government described as a gesture to "seek 
peace" less than a week after former President Nicols Maduro was captured by 
U.S. forces to face drug-trafficking charges.

   U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been pressuring Maduro allies now 
leading the country to fold to his vision for the future of the oil-rich 
nation, said the releases came at the request of the United States. In the 
interview on Fox News on Thursday night, Trump praised the government of acting 
President Delcy Rodrguez, saying: "they've been great. ... Everything we've 
wanted, they've given us."

   Jorge Rodrguez, brother of the acting president and head of Venezuela's 
National Assembly, said a "significant number" of people would be freed, but as 
of late Thursday night it was still not clear who or how many people would be 
released. The U.S. government and Venezuela's opposition have long demanded the 
widespread release of imprisoned politicians, critics and members of civil 
society. The Venezuelan government insists it does not hold prisoners for 
political reasons.

   "Consider this a gesture by the Bolivarian (Venezuelan) government, which is 
broadly intended to seek peace," he announced.

   High profile releases

   Among those released was Biagio Pilieri, an opposition leader who was part 
of Nobel Peace Prize winner Mara Corina Machado's 2024 presidential campaign, 
according to Foro Penal, an advocacy group for prisoners based in Venezuela's 
capital, Caracas. Also released was Enrique Mrquez, a former electoral 
authority and candidate in the 2024 presidential election, the organization 
said.

   Videos posted by journalists on social media show Mrquez and Pilieri 
embracing loved ones on the streets outside the prison. One video showed 
Mrquez beaming and video-calling family members, saying, "Soon I will be with 
you all."

   Five Spanish citizens -- including the prominent Venezuelan-Spanish lawyer 
and human rights activist Roco San Miguel -- were also released in the 
afternoon and, as the night wore on, reports trickled out of more detainees 
walking free. Relatives who waited for hours outside a prison in Guatire, about 
an hour east of Caracas, briefly chanted, "Libertad! Libertad!" meaning 
"Freedom! Freedom!"

   Venezuela's government has a history of releasing people imprisoned for 
political reasons -- including real and perceived opponents -- during moments 
of high tension to signal openness to dialogue. The releases on Thursday were 
the first since Maduro was deposed.

   Human rights groups and members of the opposition were encouraged by the 
move, though it wasn't clear yet what it represented -- whether the growing 
pains of a government in transition or a symbolic overture to placate the Trump 
administration, which has allowed Maduro's loyalists to stay in power as it 
exerts pressure through crippling sanctions.

   'Nothing brings back the stolen years'

   For opposition leader Machado -- whom Trump has snubbed by endorsing 
Rodrguez to lead the transition -- the gesture was "an act of moral 
restitution."

   "Nothing brings back the stolen years," she said in an audio message from 
exile addressed to families of released detainees, urging them to take comfort 
in the knowledge that "injustice will not be eternal and that the truth, though 
badly wounded, eventually prevails."

   Alfredo Romero, president of Foro Penal, expressed cautious hope "that this 
is indeed the beginning of the dismantling of a repressive system in Venezuela 
... and not a mere gesture, a charade of releasing some prisoners and 
incarcerating others."

   Despite a widespread crackdown in the aftermath of the tumultuous 2024 
election -- in which authorities said they detained more than 2,000 people -- 
Venezuela's government denies that there are prisoners unjustly detained, 
accusing them of plotting to destabilize Maduro's government.

   Romero's organization said that as of Dec. 29, 2025, there were 863 people 
detained in Venezuela "for political reasons."

   The Spanish government said Thursday that five of its citizens, including 
dual national San Miguel, had been released from custody in Venezuela and would 
soon return to Spain.

   Speaking to Spanish broadcaster RNE, Spanish Foreign Minister Jos Manuel 
Albares identified the other Spanish nationals released as Andrs Martnez, 
Jos Mara Basoa, Ernesto Gorbe and Miguel Moreno.

   Two of them, Martnez and Basoa, were arrested in Venezuela in September 
2024 and accused of plotting to destabilize Maduro's government as Spanish 
spies -- allegations vehemently denied by Spain.

   Spain's El Pas newspaper reported Thursday that another freed detainee, 
Gorbe, was arrested in 2024 on allegations of overstaying his visa.

   Families wait outside prisons

   As the news of the release broke Thursday, families of detainees rushed to 
prisons across the country, seeking information on their loved ones.

   Pedro Durn, 60, was among those hoping to reunite with his brother Franklin 
Durn as he waited outside the prison in Guatire. Durn said his brother was 
detained in 2021 on charges of trying to overthrow Maduro's government -- an 
accusation his family denies.

   Durn, who has been living in Spain, heard rumors on Wednesday that the 
government could release a number of detainees and immediately bought a plane 
ticket from Madrid to Caracas to find his brother.

   "I don't have words to express the emotion I'm feeling," Durn said. "We're 
feeling a lot of hope ... We're just waiting now."

   Despite the anticipation, fear persists.

   "Of course everyone here is very scared, but what more could (the 
government) do to us that they haven't done already," he added.

   'A bargaining chip'

   Ronal Rodrguez, a researcher at the Venezuelan Observatory at the 
University of Rosario in Bogot, Colombia, said the government releases 
prisoners at politically strategic moments.

   In July last year, Venezuela released 10 jailed U.S. citizens and permanent 
residents in exchange for the repatriation of over 200 Venezuelans deported by 
the Trump administration to El Salvador, where they had been held in a prison 
built to house criminal gangs.

   "The regime uses them like a bargaining chip," he said of prisoners in 
Venezuela. It will be telling to see not only how many people the government 
releases, he said, but also under what conditions and whether the releases 
include anyone high-profile.

   On Wednesday, the Trump administration sought to assert its control over 
Venezuelan oil, seizing a pair of sanctioned tankers transporting petroleum and 
announcing plans to relax some sanctions so the U.S. can oversee the sale of 
Venezuela's petroleum worldwide.

   Both moves reflect the administration's determination to make good on its 
effort to control the next steps in Venezuela through its vast oil resources. 
Trump pledged after the capture of Maduro that the U.S. will "run" the country.

   Trump on Thursday night said that Machado may be visiting Washington next 
week and that he may be meeting with her.

   "I understand she's coming in next week some time and I look forward to 
saying hello to her," Trump said in the Fox News interview with Sean Hannity. 
"And I've heard that she wants to do that."