Hendra Wijaya
Venezuela has released 39 political prisoners, according to the human rights group Justicia, Encuentro y Perdon (JEP), which said the dissidents were freed between Friday and Saturday from a series of prisons across the country. The releases came shortly after a second round of negotiations between the government of interim President Delcy Rodriguez and the opposition, held with the approval of Washington.
Among those freed were eight women who had been accused of "narco-terrorism" in 2021, as well as six people detained over allegations that they worked with the United States in a 2020 attempt to overthrow former President Nicolas Maduro. Their cases had become emblematic of the hundreds of Venezuelans jailed under the previous government for their political activities.
In a statement posted on the social media platform X, JEP said it would "remain vigilant and continue to demand full freedom for all those who are still waiting." The group, one of several Venezuelan organisations tracking political detentions, has repeatedly criticised the government for moving slowly on the question of prisoners considered political detainees by rights groups.
The talks that preceded the releases were the second round of a dialogue begun after Washington's military removal of Maduro in January. Rodriguez, who served as Maduro's vice president, now leads the interim government and has been negotiating with the opposition under US auspices. The process has been closely linked to Washington's own conditions on Caracas, which has tied political normalisation to economic and institutional reforms.
A first round of talks in August focused on two main files: retrieving Venezuelan funds frozen abroad to assist with recovery from earthquakes that struck in June, killing more than 6,300 people, and reforming the judiciary. That agenda has been dominated by disaster recovery and institutional cleanup, with the issue of political prisoners recurring at each stage of the discussions.
Rodriguez enacted an amnesty law in February under pressure from Washington, but the implementation of that law has been criticised as slow. Rights groups say the number of people still held as political prisoners remains in the hundreds, despite repeated announcements about individual releases and about prisoners being moved to alternative measures outside the prison system.
Foro Penal, a rights organisation that tracks political detentions, said 344 people remained classified as political prisoners as of September 18, down from 391 on August 10. On that earlier date, the government said it had freed 131 people under a separate "alternative measures" programme, in which certain prisoners were released subject to conditions rather than pardoned outright.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at the time of the earlier releases, said more than 1,000 Venezuelans had been set free since Maduro's removal, describing the move as "a crucial step" for the country's reconciliation. The official and rights-group figures are not directly comparable, since the government and US tallies appear to include prisoners released under alternative measures, while Foro Penal counts only those it regards as political detainees — a distinction that itself illustrates how contested the numbers remain.
Families of political prisoners have continued to protest in Caracas, staging demonstrations outside the US embassy and outside El Rodeo I prison, which rights groups describe as a torture centre. Photos from September show relatives and activists taking part in a march calling for the release of their loved ones, and holding a vigil with candles and signs to pray for those still detained — underscoring the gap between the pace of releases announced by the government and the expectations of the families.
The releases are likely to be read in Caracas and Washington as evidence that the negotiation track is producing tangible results, even if slowly. They also put pressure on the interim government to speed up the judicial reforms discussed in the first round of talks, particularly given that many of those released faced politically motivated prosecutions rather than ordinary criminal charges.
Analysts and rights advocates note that the cases of the eight women convicted in connection with 2021 "narco-terrorism" charges have been among the most controversial of the government's detentions. The exoneration of defendants in politically orchestrated criminal cases is one of the benchmarks observers use when judging whether reconciliation is genuine, alongside the return of funds, judicial reform and the prosecution of those responsible for abuses.
Rodriguez has also publicly committed to holding elections, promising them at the United Nations while declining to set a date, according to related Al Jazeera reporting. The holding of credible elections remains a central demand of the opposition and a condition watched closely by Washington, whose backing of the dialogue has been publicly tied to the government's political opening.
For now, JEP's message is clear that the campaign is far from over. With hundreds of people still classified as political prisoners, and relatives maintaining a near-constant presence outside the US embassy and at El Rodeo I, the 39 releases represent progress by the government's own account — but not an end to the standoff that has defined Venezuelan politics for years.
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