The Speaker of the Venezuelan Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, announced on Thursday the release of “a large number” of prisoners, including foreigners. TASR informs about it according to the reports of the agencies AFP, DPA and Reuters.
“The Bolivarian government, together with state institutions, has decided to release a significant number of Venezuelans and foreign nationals. These release processes are taking place at this very moment,” Rodríguez said. According to Rodríguez, it is one-sided “peace gesture”. The speaker of the parliament and the brother of the interim president did not provide information on the number of released prisoners. According to the human rights organization Foro Penal, there are 806 political prisoners in Venezuelan prisons, including 175 members of the military.
The French news agency states that this is the first indication of a possible concession by the Venezuelan interim government since the detention of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife by US special forces. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on Tuesday, without further explanation, that the Venezuelan authorities will close the “torture chamber in the middle of Caracas”.
The DPA agency reports that even before Maduro’s arrest, the Trump administration was pressuring the Venezuelan government to release political prisoners. Venezuelan authorities released 87 people from prisons last Thursday. According to rights groups, the police detained these people during protests after the presidential elections in 2024, in which Maduro won, according to published results. However, the opposition claims that the winner of the election was its candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. During these protests, 28 people died and approximately 2,400 were detained by the police.
