After the presidential elections on July 28, 2024, a crisis broke out in Venezuela, due to the controversial re-election of Maduro, proclaimed by the electoral body – controlled by officials linked to Chavismo.
The Committee of Mothers in Defense of Truth announced this Thursday the release of 87 people who had been detained in Venezuela in protests following the 2024 presidential elections, when Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed re-elected for a third term.
In a press release, the collective indicated that the releases took place last night at the Tocorón prison, in the state of Aragua (north), a center where a large number of those detained during the demonstrations are held.
“This achievement, which fills us with joy, is, however, insufficient. It is a limited freedom, because many of our other family members continue (…) with precautionary measures, [os quais estão] arbitrarily deprived of liberty”, states the committee in the text.
The new releases are in addition to those already released, when the committee reported 71 and the Government said there were 99.
Quoted by the EFE agency, the family committee said that the fact that the releases were resumed “is the result of the struggle of hundreds of mothers and family members who mobilized, for more than a year, to demand justice and who found solidarity from popular people and organizations on their way”.
“Injustice continues to affect hundreds of families across the country. Therefore, at the Committee of Mothers in Defense of Truth we insist that the country needs a general amnesty that grants total freedom to all people arbitrarily detained for political reasons”, reiterated the group.
In October 2025, the mothers of the detainees indicated that the release process had remained suspended since March of that year, and therefore requested a review of their children’s cases.
After the presidential elections on July 28, 2024, a crisis broke out in Venezuela, due to the controversial re-election of Maduro, proclaimed by the electoral body – controlled by officials linked to Chavismo – and the accusation of “fraud” by the opposition, which claims the victory of Edmundo González Urrutia.
In this context, more than 2,400 people were detained – most of them released – and accused of “terrorism”, according to the Public Ministry, although several Non-Governmental Organizations and opposition parties defend them as innocent and claim that they are political prisoners.
Maduro’s executive guarantees that the country is “free of political prisoners” and that those designated as such are in prison for “committing punishable acts”.
