Photo by CLIPPVE: Newly released “Plaza Venezuela” detainees joined relatives of other prisoners camping outside the Rodeo I penitentiary

Local journalists and NGOs have reported movement out of Venezuelan political prisons since Friday. Through a statement released by a peace commission appointed by Delcy Rodríguez, chavismo first claimed it would release 131 detainees. Marco Rubio echoed that figure almost exactly a few hours later.

As we’ve become accustomed to over the past seven months, information the US and chavista authorities have replicated doesn’t necessarily match reality. Human rights NGOs have verified around 80 releases since then (78 according to Foro Penal at the time of writing, while Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón reports 82). Dinorah Figuera, the figure the US is promoting as its proxy in ongoing discussions between the interim authorities and a select opposition group, is demanding clarity on the actual number.

The opening round of the US-sponsored talks came to an end two days earlier. Jorge Rodríguez and Figuera signed a joint statement promising efforts to “recover” Venezuelan gold held in the UK alongside a virtual overhaul of the Supreme Court (TSJ).

We’ve pointed out that Rubio would seek to maximize political credit from the working groups set up by the Department of State to advance institutional reforms in Venezuela. Its stated goal (in the words of Western Hemisphere chief Michael Kozak) is to “put in place the machinery necessary to conduct elections.” The statement concerning the TSJ had a positive reception, though no concrete steps have been taken so far. Rubio was quick to report the release of 130 prisoners as a fact, generating the desired international headlines under the buzz phrase of “post-Maduro talks.”

Emirlendris Benítez was beaten, suffocated, and forced into an abortion after a four-month pregnancy. It stands stands as one of the most gruesome cases of State torture documented in recent Venezuelan history. 

Though the numbers still differ, this does look like the most significant wave of releases in a while. Many of those released in recent days were the subject of some of the most cruel treatments documented at home and abroad during the Chávez-Maduro eras. That includes María Lourdes Afiuni, a former judge whom the Chávez government, domestic courts and prison guards brutalized after relentless persecution. These are not minor details in light of the TSJ announcement: a new Supreme Court stocked with a decent number of independent judges could expose lower-level security and government officials to prosecution in an eventual democratic period.

Unless the road to the next elections includes some sort of agreement (akin to the famous post-Pinochet guarantees in the 1990s), that provides immunity to certain chavista allies and security apparatus personnel, of course. Our latest Political Risk Report suggests that looming changes in the justice system will likely come with a “pact” that protects chavismo.

Who was released this time?

It’s safe to say that most of the high-profile civilians and party-related figures incarcerated by the Maduro regime have been released. The verified number of political prisoners stood between 850 and 900 before the US military intervention that toppled Maduro (with the actual figure, including undocumented cases, comfortably exceeding one thousand). That number had dropped to 391 before this new movement began on Friday.

From what we’ve gathered, many are linked to cases labeled as military rebellion and coup plotting against Maduro, which had made these individuals ineligible for amnesty. There’s insufficient proof (if any) connecting some of them to the events or actual responsibility in many cases. In others, there might be evidence or the individuals were caught red-handed (see “Operación Gedeón”), but the Venezuelan State acted viciously against them or their loved ones.

The stories concerning the women who departed the INOF women’s prison on Friday (see below) are devastating.

There’s a famous case dating back to 2018 in which rebels tried to kill Maduro during an official act using kamikaze drones. State agents arrested roughly 20 people in connection with the event, including soldiers and politician Juan Requesens. Among them, Emirlendris Benítez and her husband Yolmer Escalona were stopped at a police checkpoint and arrested a day after the attack. Security agents killed her pet and took them for apparently giving a taxi ride to individuals accused of participating. Benítez and Escalona denied knowing who those passengers were. Benítez was beaten, suffocated, and forced into an abortion after a four-month pregnancy. It stands as one of the most gruesome cases of State torture documented in recent Venezuelan history. The violence compelled the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to urge Venezuela to compensate Benítez and provide her with various forms of reparation.

In another instance among countless Sippenhaft cases (the retaliation against relatives or loved ones of State enemies), DGCIM agents seized María Auxiliadora Delgado simply for being the sister of a military officer accused of funding the drone attack. Benítez and Delgado were both sentenced to 30 years in prison, the maximum penalty allowed. Both were released on Friday afternoon after eight years, with Benítez leaving the INOF prison in a wheelchair.

This morning, Benítez appeared on a popular radio program to discuss her case and raise her voice for the political prisoners that remain.

Other releases include Samaira Romero and Maryfrancis Marcano. These two women are linked to the failed Operación Gedeón (AKA Macutazo), the event where disaffected soldiers and two American mercenaries briefly disembarked in La Guaira in an operation meant to oust Maduro before regime forces violently suppressed them. According to the reporting of journalist Kaoru Yonekura, Romero was the only woman aboard one of those boats. National Guards reportedly tortured and abused her the night of the incursion. Agents subsequently raided the home of Romero’s mother and beat her. She entered a diabetic coma, suffered a heart attack, and died a month after her daughter’s arrest. Marcano’s brother was a rebel soldier allegedly involved in earlier coup efforts. DGCIM agents kidnapped Marcano on her birthday in 2020, beating and psychologically torturing her until she fainted. A prosecutor later accused her of being a terrorist, a traitor, and plotting with foreign nations, among other charges.

Another case making the rounds concerns José Ignacio Moreno Suárez, the Venezuelan representative of mining company Gold Reserve Ltd. 

There is also Jennifer Osuna, a stewardess who worked for 10 years at the presidential palace in Caracas until FAES agents kidnapped her and a colleague, accusing them both of trying to sell military weapons for an alleged assassination attempt against Maduro. She, too, was subjected to severe torture. 

Other groups of released political prisoners also feature Sippenhaft and more “conspiracies” chavismo used as propagandistic fuel for pre-2026 crackdowns. Kaoru reported the case of Bruno Juárez, arrested for being a political cousin of Hugo Carvajal (the former spymaster for Hugo Chávez who is now in US custody) as well as Gabriela Montes, reportedly the former nanny of Carvajal’s children.

A large group is linked to the more recent “Plaza Venezuela” case, a supposed terrorist plot Diosdado Cabello claimed to have foiled a year ago during one of the many episodes of State terror targeting Venezuelan citizens after the “post-electoral” period. Roughly 50 people were arrested over an alleged plan to detonate three kilograms of dynamite in one of Caracas’s busiest transit hubs (surrounding Plaza Venezuela) to cause chaos and destabilize Maduro. Cabello claimed María Corina Machado orchestrated the attack for the anniversary of the stolen presidential vote. The human rights group CLIPPVE reported that 25 of the men linked to that case were released from El Rodeo I on Friday, joining relatives who had been camping outside the prison waiting for the others.

Another case making the rounds concerns José Ignacio Moreno Suárez, the Venezuelan representative of mining company Gold Reserve Ltd. Three years ago, DGCIM agents arrested him after Gold Reserve won an international arbitration case against Venezuela over $1 billion in expropriated assets. Her daughter spent a month behind bars after trying to visit him at some point.

“I don’t have a home. These are my clothes, all I have after three years. They took everything I have away from me,” Moreno said after his release. He also praised Machado and said Venezuela deserves to strive for economic growth, foreign investment and a great partnership with the US.

The case of Moreno Suárez underscores another pattern of repression that we’ll discuss further on the blog, and that could eventually feature in the Rodríguez-Figuera working table: the theft of homes and properties belonging to chavista opponents, from aides of Machado and interinato officials to lesser-known figures.