Venezuela released a number of imprisoned opposition leaders, activists, and foreign nationals Thursday in what the government described as a gesture to “seek peace,” less than a week after former President Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. forces to face federal drug-trafficking charges. U.S. President Donald Trump said the releases came at his administration’s request, telling Fox News that the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez had been “great” and given the United States “everything we’ve wanted.”
The releases — the first since Maduro was deposed — were welcomed by human rights groups and opposition figures, though advocates cautioned it remained unclear whether the move represented the beginning of a genuine political transition or a tactical concession to the Trump administration, which has pressed Venezuela’s caretaker government through sanctions and oil policy while allowing Maduro’s loyalists to remain in power.
Jorge Rodríguez, head of Venezuela’s National Assembly and brother of the acting president, made the announcement Thursday. “Consider this a gesture by the Bolivarian (Venezuelan) government, which is broadly intended to seek peace,” he said, adding that a “significant number” of people would be freed. The total number of those released had not been confirmed as of late Thursday.
High-profile releases
Among those freed, according to Foro Penal, a Caracas-based advocacy group for political prisoners, were Biagio Pilieri, an opposition leader who was part of Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado’s 2024 presidential campaign, and Enrique Márquez, a former electoral authority and candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Videos posted by journalists on social media showed Márquez and Pilieri embracing loved ones outside the prison.
Five Spanish citizens were also released in the afternoon, including Rocío San Miguel, a prominent Venezuelan-Spanish lawyer and human rights activist. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, speaking to broadcaster RNE, identified the other Spaniards released as Andrés Martínez, José María Basoa, Ernesto Gorbe, and Miguel Moreno. Spain’s government said all five would soon return to Spain.
Martínez and Basoa were arrested in Venezuela in September 2024 on allegations of plotting to destabilize Maduro’s government as Spanish spies — accusations Spain vehemently denied. Gorbe was arrested in 2024 on allegations of overstaying his visa, according to Spain’s El País newspaper.
Families gather outside prisons
As word of the releases spread Thursday, families rushed to prisons across the country. Outside a prison in Guatire, about an hour east of Caracas, relatives waited for hours, briefly chanting “Libertad! Libertad!” — “Freedom! Freedom!”
Pedro Durán, 60, was among those waiting, hoping to reunite with his brother Franklin Durán, who was detained in 2021 on charges of trying to overthrow Maduro’s government — charges the family denied. Durán said he had flown from Madrid after hearing rumors of possible releases.
“I don’t have words to express the emotion I’m feeling,” Durán said. “We’re feeling a lot of hope … We’re just waiting now.”
Rights groups express cautious hope
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.” His organization said that as of Dec. 29, 2025, there were 863 people detained in Venezuela for political reasons. Despite a widespread detention campaign following the disputed 2024 election — in which Venezuelan authorities said they detained more than 2,000 people — the government has denied holding prisoners for political reasons, accusing detainees of plotting to destabilize the state.
For Machado — speaking in an audio message from exile addressed to families of released detainees — the gesture was “an act of moral restitution.” She said: “Nothing brings back the stolen years,” urging families to take comfort in the knowledge that “injustice will not be eternal and that the truth, though badly wounded, eventually prevails.”
Trump has endorsed Rodríguez to lead Venezuela’s political transition rather than backing Machado. Trump said Thursday he expected Machado to visit Washington the following week. “I understand she’s coming in next week some time and I look forward to saying hello to her,” he said in the Fox News interview.
A history of strategic releases
Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at the Venezuelan Observatory at the University of Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia, said the government releases prisoners at politically strategic moments. “The regime uses them like a bargaining chip,” he said.
Venezuela’s government has a documented history of releasing people held for political reasons during periods of high tension to signal openness to dialogue. In July 2025, Venezuela released 10 jailed U.S. citizens and permanent residents in exchange for the repatriation of over 200 Venezuelans who had been deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador, where they were held in a prison built to house criminal gangs.
The prisoner releases came as the Trump administration moved on a parallel track to assert influence over Venezuela’s oil sector. On Wednesday, the administration seized a pair of sanctioned tankers transporting Venezuelan petroleum and announced plans to relax some sanctions so the United States could oversee the sale of Venezuela’s petroleum worldwide. Trump said after Maduro’s capture that the United States would “run” the country.