Congressional president Jorge Rodríguez says releases are a gesture to ‘consolidate peace’
Five days after the US seized Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has announced it is releasing an “important number” of detainees in what the congressional president characterised as a gesture to “consolidate peace”.
It is unclear how many people are being freed. Human rights organisations working in the country estimate that Venezuela holds between 800 and 1,000 political prisoners, most of them detained for taking part in protests after the 2024 election, widely believed to have been stolen by Maduro.
The congressional president, Jorge Rodríguez, the brother of the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said the move was a “unilateral gesture to reaffirm our unbreakable decision to consolidate peace in the republic and peaceful coexistence among all”.
Spain’s foreign ministry confirmed the release of five Spanish nationals, one of them a citizen with dual nationality, who it said were “preparing to travel to Spain with assistance from our embassy in Caracas”.
