Venezuela releases dozens of political prisoners as election calls grow

Venezuela frees dozens of political prisoners as pressure for elections increases

Prisoner releases and free elections were two major commitments the new administration made to the US

Venezuelan authorities have freed a large number of political prisoners, human rights groups said, days after the country’s interim leader met US President Donald Trump in New York.

Among those released in the early hours of Saturday morning was Wilder Vasquez, who received a five-year sentence in 2018 over allegations that he was plotting to kill former President Nicolás Maduro.

Opposition figures have renewed their calls for free elections after interim President Delcy Rodriguez held talks with Trump, who captured Maduro earlier this year, at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

Her administration had previously freed hundreds of prisoners as part of a reconciliation effort following Maduro’s seizure.

But those releases slowed to a trickle in April after Rodriguez said the programme was “coming to an end”.

Venezuela’s government has not issued any statement about the latest releases, nor has it said whether they were linked to her conversation with the US president.

Gonzalo Himiob, vice-president of the rights group Foro Penal, said “a significant number” of political prisoners had been released on Saturday morning from several of Venezuela’s detention centres.

Foro Penal confirmed the release of Miguel Castillo Cedeño, whom it said had been arbitrarily detained since June 2019.

Also freed was Frank Cabañas, who rights groups say had been held in prison for nine years after being linked to the death of a police officer. Foro Penal said he was the only suspect still detained, despite family members reporting last year that he was suffering health problems.

Opposition and human rights groups have said Maduro’s government used the detention of political prisoners for years to crush dissent and silence critics.

Rodriguez has tried to present her interim government as more tolerant of political dissent while seeking favour with the US. The prisoner release programme was a key concession from her administration to the US.

However, her decision to end the scheme drew criticism from opposition and rights groups. Foro Penal said it was halted with fewer than half of the country’s political prisoners released.

Rodriguez’s government continues to deny that dissidents are jailed. It has described the release of prisoners as a gesture of goodwill and reconciliation.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, a minister closely tied to Maduro’s authoritarian rule, called the interim president’s meeting with Trump “a great triumph of the diplomacy of peace”.

But opposition voices criticised the meeting, seeing it as a dismissal of their calls — previously backed by the US — for rapid elections.

Pedro Mario Burelli, a former executive at Venezuela’s state oil company and an opposition commentator, called the two world leaders “the shameless puppet and her unscrupulous and undignified puppet-master”, adding: “Little has changed in Venezuela under Washington’s clumsy and selective oversight.”

Venezuela’s last elections, held in 2024 and won by Maduro according to the official result, were widely disputed as rigged. Opposition tallies suggested their candidate, who ran after Machado was barred from standing, had won 70% of the vote.

Even so, the Trump administration backed Rodriguez, Maduro’s former vice-president, as his successor rather than opposition leader María Corina Machado after Maduro was seized and put on trial on drug charges in January.

Analysts at the time described that decision as the US choosing short-term stability in Venezuela until elections could be held.

Rodriguez used her UN General Assembly speech on Thursday to repeat that there “will be elections in Venezuela”, without saying when.