Hundreds of Venezuelans have begun registering relatives they say are “political prisoners” after the government promised a broader wave of releases following the U.S. capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro, according to prisoner advocates and families described by Foro Penal.
The issue is not only about who is freed, but about what families are being told. In Guanare, Venezuela, the release hopes arrived with loss: police officer Edilson Torres, 51, died of a heart attack Saturday in prison, where his family said he had been held incommunicado after his detention in December on politically motivated accusations. Torres was buried Tuesday in his rural hometown.
Torres’ family had been waiting for the government’s promised release of prisoners linked to the Jan. 3 capture, but his death came before the promised change. After Torres died, scores of families that had previously hesitated to contact advocacy groups began coming forward, Foro Penal said.
Foro Penal director Alfredo Romero said the organization received a “flood of messages” from families since last week. Romero said the families had not reported their relatives earlier “out of fear,” and that they were now doing so because, in his account, there was a new possibility their loved ones would be freed. “They see it as hope, but more importantly, as an opportunity,” Romero said.
Romero said that of roughly 300 families who reached out to Foro Penal, about 100 cases had been confirmed so far as politically motivated. He said most of the reported cases in the past few days involved people who once worked for Venezuela’s military, and he also said Foro Penal tracks more than 800 people it says are still detained for political reasons in Venezuela.
The government’s release commitment was described by Jorge Rodríguez, head of Venezuela’s national assembly, who said last week that a “significant number” of Venezuelans and foreigners imprisoned in the country would be released as a gesture to “seek peace” after the Maduro capture in the early hours of Jan. 3. Venezuela’s government has denied there are prisoners unjustly detained, accusing detainees of plotting to destabilize Maduro’s government.
Disputes about the releases have grown as the government and advocacy groups offer different numbers. As of Tuesday evening, Foro Penal said it had confirmed 56 prisoners it described as detained for political reasons had been freed. The government rejected Foro Penal’s count and reported a far higher figure of 400 Tuesday afternoon, while providing no evidence of the releases, no time range for when they were carried out, and no identities of those freed—making it impossible, in the article’s account, to independently determine whether those released were held for political reasons or for other reasons.
The Torres case itself became part of that broader contention. After Torres’ death, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said in a statement that the case had been assigned to a terrorism unit and “was linked to criminal activities detected by state security agencies,” without providing details. The statement used language the article described as consistent with past accusations made against real or perceived government critics.
Before Torres’ funeral Tuesday, a procession of cars and motorcycles stopped at a local jail where his wife remains detained on disputed accusations. His sister, Emelyn Torres, said “My little brother, my little brother” between sobs after his casket arrived for the wake. Hours earlier, while a minivan transported Torres’ body from Caracas to Guanare, the article said Emelyn learned that other men linked to the WhatsApp group that led to her brother’s arrest had been released, and she wailed.
Among the releases described by the article were human rights attorney Rocío San Miguel, who immediately relocated to Spain; Biagio Pilieri, an opposition leader who was part of María Corina Machado’s 2024 presidential campaign; and Enrique Márquez, a former electoral authority and presidential candidate. The article also cited Italian businessman Marco Burlò, who was released from prison Monday and told reporters outside a Rome airport Tuesday that he was kept isolated throughout detention, calling it a “pure and real kidnapping.”
Burlò said he could not claim he was physically abused, but he described isolation that prevented contact with his children and denied what he said were the right to defense and the ability to speak to a lawyer: “without being able to talk to our children, without the right to defense, without being able to speak to the lawyer, completely isolated.”
While the government’s releases have sparked criticism from families, U.N. human rights watchdogs and U.S. politicians—who the article said accused the government of not following through on promised wider action—the rapid changes have also sustained what the article described as a rare moment of hope for families who have waited years for relatives’ freedom. Romero said many families had stayed away because of what he described as a crackdown on dissent after Venezuela’s 2024 election, when authorities said they detained more than 2,000 people during mass street protests and, in the months that followed, passed a law critics dubbed the “anti-NGO law,” which he said chilled outreach until now.