He tells reporters the government was carrying out the immediate “release of a large number of Venezuelan and foreign nationals” in what he called a “unilateral gesture.”
[and they're all coming here]
It is the first sign of possible concessions by Venezuela’s interim government since President Donald Trump’s administration said it was “in charge” in Venezuela after US forces seized Maduro and took him to New York to face trial.
Jorge Rodriguez does not say how many prisoners were being released. The non-governmental monitor Foro Penal says there are 806 political prisoners held in Venezuela, including 175 military personnel.
Trump said Tuesday that Venezuelan authorities were “closing up” a “torture chamber in the middle of Caracas,” without elaborating.
Trump says 'cancelled' second attacks on Venezuela after prisoner release
[AnNahar] U.S. President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
said on Friday he cancelled a second wave of attacks on Venezuela
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south...
after it began releasing "large numbers" of political prisoners this week.
"Venezuela is releasing large numbers of political prisoners as a sign of "Seeking Peace."... Because of this cooperation, I have cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks," he said on his Truth platform.
"At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House," he added.
Venezuela released a number of imprisoned high-profile opposition figures, activists and journalists — both citizens and foreigners — Thursday in what the government described as a gesture to "seek peace" less than a week after former President Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. forces to face drug-trafficking charges.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been pressuring Maduro allies now leading the country to fold to his vision for the future of the oil-rich nation, said the releases came at the request of the United States. In the interview on Fox News on Thursday night, Trump praised the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, saying: "they've been great. ... Everything we've wanted, they've given us."
The U.S. government and Venezuela's opposition have long demanded the widespread release of imprisoned politicians, critics and members of civil society. The Venezuelan government insists it does not hold prisoners for political reasons.
HIGH PROFILE RELEASES
Among those released was Biagio Pilieri, an opposition leader who was part of Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado's 2024 presidential campaign, according to Foro Penal, an advocacy group for prisoners based in Venezuela's capital, Caracas. Also released was Enrique Márquez, a former electoral authority and candidate in the 2024 presidential election, the organization said.
Videos posted by journalists on social media show Márquez and Pilieri embracing loved ones on the streets outside the prison. One video showed Márquez beaming and video-calling family members, saying, "Soon I will be with you all."
Five Spanish citizens — including the prominent Venezuelan-Spanish lawyer and human rights
...not to be confused with
individual rights,mind you...
activist Rocío San Miguel — were also released in the afternoon and, as the night wore on, reports trickled out of more detainees walking free. Relatives who waited for hours outside a prison in Guatire, about an hour east of Caracas, briefly chanted, "Libertad! Libertad!" meaning "Freedom! Freedom!"
Venezuela's government has a history of releasing people imprisoned for political reasons — including real and perceived opponents — during moments of high tension to signal openness to dialogue. The releases on Thursday were the first since Maduro was deposed.
'NOTHING BRINGS BACK THE STOLEN YEARS'
For opposition leader Machado — whom Trump has snubbed by endorsing Rodríguez to lead the transition — the gesture was "an act of moral restitution."
"Nothing brings back the stolen years," she said in an audio message from exile addressed to families of released detainees, urging them to take comfort in the knowledge that "injustice will not be eternal and that the truth, though badly maimed, eventually prevails."
Despite a widespread crackdown in the aftermath of the tumultuous 2024 election — in which authorities said they detained more than 2,000 people — Venezuela's government denies that there are prisoners unjustly detained, accusing them of plotting to destabilize Maduro's government.
Romero's organization said that as of Dec. 29, 2025, there were 863 people detained in Venezuela "for political reasons."
The Spanish government said Thursday that five of its citizens, including dual national San Miguel, had been released from custody in Venezuela and would soon return to Spain.
Speaking to Spanish broadcaster RNE, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares identified the other Spanish nationals released as Andrés Martínez, José María Basoa, Ernesto Gorbe and Miguel Moreno.
Two of them, Martínez and Basoa, were arrested in Venezuela in September 2024 and accused of plotting to destabilize Maduro's government as Spanish spies — allegations vehemently denied by Spain.
Spain's El País newspaper reported Thursday that another freed detainee, Gorbe, was arrested in 2024 on allegations of overstaying his visa.
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