Multiple American citizens who were detained in Venezuela have been released, the State Department said Wednesday — the first to be freed since the U.S. military's stunning nighttime raid to capture President Nicolás Maduro.
The move was welcomed by a State Department official who said it was “an important step in the right direction by the interim authorities.” However, the official declined to say how many had been freed or identify those released.
The news comes six days after the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, said that a “significant number” of prisoners, both foreign and Venezuelan, would be released as a gesture to “seek peace” following the capture of Maduro in the early hours of Jan. 3.
Rodríguez is the brother of Venezuela's President Delcy Rodríguez, who served as Maduro's vice president before the American attack. Maduro was taken to the U.S. to face drug charges at a New York court. Before the releases began, rights groups said more than 800 political prisoners were being held.
When Rodríguez announced the releases, Christopher Hernandez-Roy, a leading authority on Venezuela and senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said there were four “unlawfully detained” being held in the country.
The U.S. and opponents to the Venezuelan regime have long demanded the release of detained opposition figures, activists and journalists, who they say are used as a political tool by the ruling party.
Venezuela's government has denied that prisoners have been unjustly detained and had accused them of plotting to destabilize Maduro’s regime.
Venezuela’s government said Monday that 116 prisoners had been released though rights groups reported a lower figure. It came after a week of political turmoil in Caracas.
As of Tuesday evening, the Venezuela human rights group Foro Penal had confirmed 56 prisoners it said were detained for political reasons had been freed, according to Reuters. The group criticized the lack of government transparency over the releases.
Venezuela's government negated the organization's count, and reported a far higher figure of 400, although it did not provide evidence of the releases or a time range in which they were carried out. It also did not identify those freed, so it was not possible to say whether they were imprisoned for political reasons.
Among those who have been released are human rights attorney Rocío San Miguel, who Foro Penal said had been relocated to Spain.
Biagio Pilieri, an opposition leader who was part of Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado 2024 presidential campaign and Enrique Márquez, a former electoral authority and presidential candidate, have also been freed.
Italian businessman Mario Burlò was also freed on Monday. “I can’t say that I was physically abused, but without being able to talk to our children, without the right to defense, without being able to speak to the lawyer, completely isolated, here they thought that I might have died,” he told told reporters outside a Rome airport the following day, according to The Associated Press.
Venezuela released 10 jailed American citizens and permanent residents in July. They were exchanged for migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
