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Human rights group Justicia Encuentro y Perdon counted 39 political dissidents freed from multiple prisons between Friday and Saturday including eight women charged with narco-terrorism in 2021 and six people accused of aiding a 2020 US-linked effort to unseat then-president Nicolas Maduro. The organization said in a statement that it would remain vigilant and continue to demand full freedom for all those who are still waiting. Among those released were individuals whose cases had drawn international attention during the years of political tension that followed disputed elections.
The prisoner releases followed a second round of US-approved talks on Friday between the interim government of President Delcy Rodriguez and opposition leaders according to multiple regional reports. Rodriguez who previously served as vice president under Maduro has operated under an amnesty law enacted in February at external urging though rights monitors have described the implementation as gradual. A prior round of negotiations in August focused on unlocking frozen Venezuelan funds to support reconstruction after earthquakes that killed more than 6300 people earlier in the year.
Foro Penal which tracks political detentions in the country placed the remaining number of such prisoners at 344 as of September 18 before this latest group of releases. The organization’s latest figures show 330 men and 14 women among those still held with 191 never having received a conviction. Foro Penal data further indicate that more than 1073 people have been freed in 2026 so far while only 32 new political arrests occurred in the same period.
Protests by families of remaining detainees have continued outside the US embassy in Caracas and at El Rodeo I prison which several nongovernmental organizations have identified as a site associated with reports of mistreatment. The interim administration has not issued an official list of those freed this weekend leaving independent tallies as the primary accounting mechanism. Advocacy groups have repeatedly called for broader judicial reforms to prevent future arbitrary detentions.
Delcy Rodriguez told the United Nations General Assembly this month that Venezuela had begun a process of democratic transformation and would hold elections though no date has been set. The opposition has used the talks to press for faster movement toward credible polls that could resolve the crisis stemming from the 2024 presidential vote widely viewed abroad as fraudulent. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described successive waves of releases as crucial steps toward reconciliation following the events of January.
Since 2014 Foro Penal has documented more than 19200 politically motivated detentions across Venezuela with the organization assisting over 14000 former detainees. The latest releases build on an August announcement in which authorities said 131 individuals received alternative measures to incarceration. Rights monitors continue to document cases of people held under restrictive measures short of prison even as the headline prisoner count declines.
