The United States has welcomed the release of US citizens by Venezuela, which has been freeing political prisoners in a process that NGOs describe as slow and opaque.
Many in the country also warn that, despite efforts by the regime to appear more open after the seizure and rendition of Nicolás Maduro, repression continues, with residents still having their mobile phones searched by armed militias on the streets and afraid to engage in any form of public protest.
Local media reported that 15 teenagers were detained on 5 January for “celebrating” Maduro’s capture in the city of Barcelona, about 300km (186 miles) from the capital, Caracas. After a local backlash, the teenagers were released on Tuesday.
Since the unprecedented US ground attack on a South American country, a state of emergency has been in force in Venezuela, ordering the “immediate search and capture of anyone involved in the promotion or support of the US armed attack”.
“This kind of power reshuffle produces so much administrative chaos and a lack of a clear chain of command” said Zair Mundaray, the former Venezuelan senior prosecutor. “[The regime] is seeking to project a very civic image, releasing some people, while others are being jailed at the same time,” he added.
On Tuesday, the congressional president, Jorge Rodríguez – brother of acting president, Delcy Rodríguez – said that the regime was carrying out a “mass process of releases” that he claimed already amounted to more than 400 people, a figure that includes two rounds of releases carried out before Maduro’s capture, on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
NGOs monitoring political detentions, however, say far fewer releases have so far been independently verified.
The organisation Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón, for example, confirmed only 157 of the 186 releases announced before, and just 82 of the 116 that Rodríguez claimed had taken place since last week.
NGOs estimate that there are still close to 1,000 political prisoners in Venezuela and are demanding the release of all of them, fully and without conditions. Charges remain in place against many of those who have so far been freed, who are also barred from making public statements.
A US state department spokesperson said in a brief statement on Tuesday: “We welcome the release of detained Americans in Venezuela. This is an important step in the right direction by the interim authorities.”
There was no confirmation, however, of how many US citizens were released, although the number is estimated to be at least four.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the White House has filed for court warrants to seize dozens more tankers linked to Venezuela’s oil trade, though it remains unclear how many seizure warrants the US has sought and how many it has already obtained.
The US military and coast guard have seized five vessels in recent weeks in international waters that were either carrying Venezuelan oil or had done so in the past.
On Thursday, Donald Trump is due to receive Venezuela’s main opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner, María Corina Machado, at the White House. Many had expected her to take charge of the country after Maduro’s fall, but she was sidelined by the US president, who instead chose to keep the former dictator’s entire cabinet in place.
Bloomberg reported that the acting president, Rodríguez, will send a representative to Washington – on the same day as Machado’s visit – to meet senior US officials: Félix Plasencia, the current head of mission at the Venezuelan embassy in London and a former foreign minister.
Venezuela and the US resumed talks last week on reopening embassies in both countries.
Also in an apparent effort to appear more open, Rodríguez and the powerful interior minister, Diosdado Cabello – who controls much of the regime’s repression – have returned to X on Tuesday, more than a year after Maduro censored the social media platform. It remains unclear whether the ban has been lifted for all Venezuelans, who had been forced to use VPNs to access the former Twitter.
