Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado called on Pope Leo XIV to help political prisoners in Venezuela during an audience at the Vatican on Monday. Human rights organizations estimate that there are 800 to 1,200 such prisoners in the country, TASR reports according to the AFP agency.
“I asked (the Pope) to intercede for all the Venezuelans who were kidnapped and who are missing,” Machado said after meeting with Leo XIV.
Political prisoners and church aid
“With the support of the church and unprecedented pressure from the United States government, the defeat of evil in our country is closer,” she added in a statement her team posted on the X platform.
Venezuela announced on Monday that it had released another 116 political prisoners in the past few hours. But the opposition and human rights groups have disputed the numbers, saying only around 50 people have been released since Thursday.
Tlak in Caracas
AFP reminds that the government in Caracas, under pressure from Washington, announced that it would release people imprisoned under the government of ex-president Nicolás Maduro, many of whom were sentenced for participating in protests in response to his disputed re-election in 2024.
Machado also said Monday that in talks with the head of the Catholic Church, she emphasized the legitimacy of opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia and asked the pope to support “rapid progress in the transition to democracy in Venezuela.”
New leader and international cooperation
The opposition and much of the international community consider González Urrutia the legitimate winner of the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election.
But the country is currently being run by interim president Delcy Rodriguez after US special forces captured and took Maduro and his wife out of the country more than a week ago. Although Rodriguez is a loyal ally of the ex-president, she is negotiating with Washington.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was open to meeting with Rodriguez and confirmed that his administration was working well with her.
