Venezuela releases 39 political prisoners after second round of US-backed talks

CARACAS – Venezuela has freed 39 political prisoners from several detention facilities, according to the human rights group Justicia, Encuentro y Perdon (JEP), in a move that follows a second round of negotiations between the country's interim government and the opposition, held with Washington's approval. The dissidents were released over a span of two days, on Friday and Saturday, according to the rights organisation.

Among those set free were eight women who had been charged in 2021 with what authorities called "narco-terrorism", as well as six individuals who were accused of having worked with the United States in a foiled 2020 attempt to overthrow then-President Nicolas Maduro. The presence of both groups in a single release is significant, since they represent very different strands of the political cases pursued under Maduro, from drug-related convictions handed down years ago to alleged involvement in the uprising that Washington would later use as a justification for military action.

JEP said in a statement posted on X that the organisation would "remain vigilant" and continue pressing for the full release of those still detained. Rights lawyers have repeatedly argued that the category of political prisoner remains contested in Venezuela, where ordinary criminal defendants and those held for their political opinions are not always distinguished clearly by official sentencing.

The releases came immediately after a second round of talks on Friday between the government of interim President Delcy Rodriguez — Maduro's former vice president — and opposition representatives. The negotiations have been convened with the knowledge and approval of the US government, which removed Maduro from power through a military operation in January, a move that left Rodriguez heading an interim administration.

Talks in a first round in August had concentrated on two substantive files: recovering Venezuelan funds held frozen abroad to finance reconstruction after June's earthquakes, which killed more than 6,300 people, and reforming the country's judiciary. Judicial overhaul has long been a core demand of the opposition, which has argued that many of the political prosecutions dating from the Maduro era relied on compromised courts and politically engineered charges.

Rodriguez had already signed an amnesty law in February under pressure from Washington, but the rate of releases since then has been widely criticised as too slow. The new detentions-to-freed shift is therefore being measured against an amnesty that was proclaimed months ago and has so far produced limited results on the ground.

Rights group Foro Penal, which monitors political detentions in Venezuela, reported that 344 people remained classified as political prisoners as of September 18, down from 391 on August 10. The government said on August 10 that it had released 131 people under a separate scheme of what it calls "alternative measures", in which prisoners serve out part of their sentences under conditions other than incarceration.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at that time that more than 1,000 Venezuelans had been released since Maduro's removal, describing it as "a crucial step" for the country's reconciliation. The divergence between the American figure of more than 1,000 releases and Foro Penal's count of 344 people still formally classified as political prisoners illustrates the difficulty of assessing progress without a shared definition of who is being counted, and on what basis.

Pressure from below has been constant throughout the process. Families of political prisoners have mounted repeated demonstrations outside the US embassy in Caracas and outside El Rodeo I prison, which rights groups describe as a torture centre. Their presence at the embassy has made the diplomatic channel a visible point of accountability, given that Washington is both the acknowledged sponsor of the talks and a party to the military action that preceded them.

Analysts note that the second negotiating round has shifted the centre of gravity of the talks. The first round addressed money and judicial structure; the second appears to have delivered concrete prisoner releases, suggesting that the interim government is willing to trade measurable concessions for political normalisation with opposition forces and its US supporter.

The process also intersects with wider Venezuelan diplomacy. Rodriguez told the United Nations that elections would be held, though she gave no date, leaving the question of when and how a vote might be organised unresolved. Separately, the United States removed Venezuela from a drug-related transit and production list, according to President Trump — steps that point towards a broader normalisation of Washington's relations with Caracas.

What to watch now is whether the 39 releases become a pattern or remain a discrete gesture. Given that rights groups counted 344 political prisoners still in detention in mid-September, the immediate test for the interim government is whether the October and November releases continue at a similar pace, whether the judicial reform promised in August begins to alter how political cases are tried, and whether the families still camped outside the embassy and El Rodeo I prison finally disperse. JEP's warning that it will keep demanding freedom for those who remain suggests the pressure will not lift.