CARACAS, Venezuela—Venezuela's acting government gave 131 detained prisoners what it called "alternative liberty restriction measures" on Aug. 14, announcing the move through Communications Minister Miguel Perez Pirela. The government said those affected had been held for alleged or confirmed participation in crimes, without specifying which cases were covered or what the alternative measures entailed.
The announcement came under the government's Peace and Democratic Coexistence program, a framework Caracas has used to manage prisoner releases since U.S. strikes in 2026 led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, took over as acting president in the aftermath and has governed since.
Rights group Foro Penal, which provides legal representation to prisoners in Venezuela, said earlier Friday that 391 political prisoners remain in the country. By 4:30 p.m. local time, the organization had confirmed 29 individual releases—a figure significantly below the 131 the government announced, reflecting a gap between official statements and independently verified outcomes.
Opposition figure Dinorah Figuera, who leads a delegation at U.S.-backed negotiations with Venezuela's interim government, acknowledged the releases but pressed for more. "Not everyone has been released, and they all deserve full freedom; let's continue to demand this tirelessly until every citizen is reunited with their family," Figuera said following Perez Pirela's announcement.
Foro Penal and the Vente Venezuela opposition movement both marked individual releases on social media Friday, though neither confirmed the full figure the government claimed. The discrepancy between Foro Penal's tally of 29 confirmed releases and the government's count of 131 illustrates the difficulty independent organizations face in tracking detentions and releases in real time.
The Rodríguez administration has a pattern of publishing cumulative totals without specifying dates or distinguishing new releases from those counted in prior years, according to human rights observers. As of March 8, 621 political prisoners had been confirmed released since Rodríguez announced the program on Jan. 8—but the U.N.-mandated Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela said those measures fell short of the country's human rights obligations and called for immediate, unconditional release of all political prisoners.
Those released under the program are not free in the conventional sense. They are barred from speaking publicly and must appear before a judge every 30 days. Human rights organizations have described the arrangement as a revolving-door effect: some detainees are freed under restricted conditions while new arrests on political grounds continue. The U.N.-mandated Fact-Finding Mission documented 87 politically motivated arrests between Jan. 3 and March of this year.
The prisoner release program began against the backdrop of U.S. military pressure. President Trump said in an interview that Venezuela had been cooperative—"they've been great. Everything we've wanted, they've given us"—and on Jan. 9 announced he had cancelled a planned second wave of strikes in response to that cooperation, which included the initial prisoner releases.
On Jan. 29, Rodríguez announced a general amnesty bill covering cases dating to 1999. The National Assembly of Venezuela approved it on Feb. 19. National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said that immediately after the bill took effect, 1,557 prisoners formally requested release under its terms. By Feb. 24, Foro Penal had confirmed 91 releases specifically under the amnesty law.
Rodríguez also announced plans to dismantle El Helicoide, a detention center long associated with allegations of torture, and convert the facility into a sports and cultural center. No completion date was provided.
Foreign nationals released since January include citizens from Argentina, Colombia, Italy, Honduras, Israel, Spain, Portugal, Peru and the United States. Estimates from human rights organizations placed the total number of political prisoners in Venezuela above 800 before 2026. Opposition leader María Corina Machado has repeatedly called for the immediate release of all political prisoners without conditions.
Protests, hunger strikes and prison vigils have continued in Venezuela as families press for the release of those still held. The gap between the government's stated figures and the counts maintained by independent groups like Foro Penal has made it difficult to establish a reliable running total, a problem the U.N. Fact-Finding Mission has also flagged in its reporting.
