CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan authorities had freed 49 political prisoners as of Monday afternoon, according to Caracas-based advocacy group Foro Penal, a trickle of releases that left hundreds of families camped on prison sidewalks hoping for more.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez’s government pledged last week to free a significant number of detainees as a goodwill gesture to “seek peace,” but officials have not named or enumerated those being considered. Human rights organizations say more than 800 people are held in Venezuela for political reasons.
The releases come in the week following a U.S. military operation that resulted in the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro, and amid diplomatic signals from Washington — including a White House confirmation Monday that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is set to meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday.
UN says releases fall short
The U.N.-backed fact-finding mission on Venezuela welcomed the freeing of detainees on Monday, but said in a statement that the number released in recent days “falls far short” of the wider demand for the “immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.”
Foro Penal confirmed the release of 49 individuals, among them foreign nationals holding Italian, Spanish, Argentine, Israeli and Colombian citizenship.
Officials have not provided a list of people being considered for release, leaving human rights groups scouring for information and families waiting anxiously outside detention facilities since last Thursday, when the government first made its pledge.
Trump claims credit; families push back
Over the weekend, Trump said the releases came at Washington’s request. “Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners,” he wrote Saturday on his Truth Social platform.
Jenny Quiroz, whose husband was detained Nov. 26 at his pharmacy in Caracas for allegedly criticizing the government in a WhatsApp group, disputed that characterization from her post outside a prison.
“These are two realities. They want the world to see that everything is normal, that nothing happened here,” Quiroz said. “But it’s a mixture of anguish, despair…. You know what it’s like to have 48 days without knowing if he eats, if they have him isolated, if they are psychologically or physically torturing him?”
Quiroz said she wanted Trump to know that the information he is receiving regarding prison releases “is not 100% true.”
Yaxzodara Lozada said she had not seen her husband since his detention on Nov. 17 — an arrest for which she said no reason was ever given. She had spent the night sleeping on the sidewalk outside the prison.
Government projects normalcy
Venezuelan commerce and daily life had resumed by Monday, with malls, schools and gyms reopening a week after the U.S. military operation that led to Maduro’s arrest.
The government deployed security forces to public schools around the country for the first day of classes since the holiday break. During a school tour broadcast on state television, acting President Rodríguez — surrounded by children — said her country is “actively resisting” the U.S. while “we’re writing a new page in Venezuelan history.”
Preschool teacher Ángela Ramírez said her students did not raise the topic of the recent upheaval. “I didn’t address it because I didn’t notice the interest and a need in them to know what’s going on,” she said. “They are happy to be back at school.”