Venezuela Announces Prisoner Release
Jan. 9, 2026
Venezuela’s government began releasing an unspecified number of political prisoners yesterday. a move announced byJorge Rodríguez, the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly and the brother of interim president Delcy Rodríguez. He described it as a “unilateral gesture” by the government.
As of Thursday evening, seven prisoners had been confirmed released. (New York Times)
Among those freed was Rocío San Miguel, the head of Control Ciudadano, a nonprofit that has investigated extrajudicial killings by Venezuela’s security forces. Her arrest, two years ago, was internationally condemned and part of a broader crackdown on dissent by Nicolás Maduro’s government ahead of the 2024 elections. (New York Times)
Human rights groups said other people released yesterday include Enrique Márquez, a former presidential candidate and longtime opposition figure, and Biaggio Pilieri, a journalist and former member of Venezuela’s National Assembly. (Washington Post)
Prisoners’ rights groups estimate that between 800 and 900 political prisoners are incarcerated in Venezuela. More than 100 opposition party members and more than 20 journalists remain imprisoned.
Alfredo Romero, the head of Foro Penal, an NGO that estimates there are still 806 political prisoners in Venezuela, posted that by early evening he had only been able to confirm five releases. “We expect the freedom of all political prisoners, not partial and conditional gestures,” he wrote, referring to the fact that many people freed in recent months were granted only conditional liberty, subject to precautionary measures such as travel bans, mandatory court appearances and restrictions on speaking to the media about their cases. (Guardian)
Relatives of people detained in the post-election protests in 2024 expressed concern that there was no indication their family members would be released at this moment, reports Efecto Cocuyo.
Families have been gathering outside of jails hoping for news of their relatives.
This morning U.S. President Donald Trump called the releases “a very important and smart gesture” in a social media post, touting strong U.S.-Venezuela coordination since Maduro’s ouster. He also repeated that a second military operation in Venezuela wouldn’t be necessary because of Rodríguez’s cooperation.
Trump did not elaborate on what the plan for new strikes was the alleged plan for fresh strikes but said the US navy armada in the Caribbean would remain, leaving Washington with the ability to attack Venezuela at short notice. “All ships will stay in place for safety and security purposes.” (Guardian)
Venezuela
Rumors abound in Venezuela that Delcy Rodríguez betrayed Nicolás Maduro, opening the doors for his rendition a week ago. (Has it really only been a week?) There are also coup rumors, notes James Bosworth in the Latin America Risk Report. “… Data suggests that coups beget coups. Now that there has been one forced change of power, another is more likely. Everyone is reading the tea leaves, trying to figure out whether Diosdado, Padrino Lopez, and Delcy Rodriguez are a nice stable three-legged stool or if all three hate each other enough at this point to tear each other down.”
A nervous quite has descended on Caracas, “as people grapple with the aftermath of the U.S. attack and a widening government crackdown against dissent. For now, Caracas residents report no shortages of goods in markets, but inflation is up, normally busy streets are empty and the businesses that do open only do so for set periods of time,” reports the Washington Post.
There is still no official list of how many people were killed in the U.S. raid to abduct Maduro — the government has “offered different tallies, its communication on the deaths mixing obfuscation and propaganda,” reports the New York Times. “Most recently, Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s interior minister, said that 100 people had been killed, and at least as many wounded. The majority of those killed appear to have been members of the military.”
Donroe Doctrine
The U.S. Justice Department removed charges accusing Maduro of leading a drug cartel called Cartel de los Soles, a tacit recognition of what experts have said for months: the Cartel de los Soles is not an actual organization. Instead, the revised indictment states that it refers to a “patronage system” and a “culture of corruption” fueled by drug money, reports the New York Times.
“Trump, his cabinet members and his government have repeatedly characterized Venezuela as the source of deadly drugs killing Americans; the ousted leader, Mr. Maduro, as the engineer of a mass migration of criminals into the United States; and the country as an unpunished thief of American oil.” But none of those claims is accurate, report the New York Times in a fact check.
The U.S. Senate advanced a bipartisan measure intended to block the Trump administration from conducting further military action in Venezuela, reports the Washington Post.
While the resolution has little chance of being enacted or imposing any constraint on Trump, “it was a rare assertion of congressional authority over the president’s war powers,” reports the New York Times.
Trump’s intervention of Venezuela’s oil industry has “thrown the nation’s economy into turmoil and upended trade with key importers,” who include U.S. adversaries like China, Cuba, Iran and Russia, reports the Washington Post.
A U.S. Navy vessel is pursuing several sanctioned oil tankers that appear to be making a break across the Atlantic Ocean after leaving Venezuelan waters earlier this week, reports the New York Times. Some of the vessels have switched to Russian flags in an apparent effort to evade a U.S. boarding attempt.
“In the days since the U.S. raid in Venezuela, a network of Russian propaganda websites has been promoting a message that countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia should stop buying American military hardware,” reports the New York Times.
Oil execs will meet with Trump today. “They will have to strike a delicate balance of appeasing the president, who frequently expresses fondness for their industry, without making expensive pledges that could take decades to pan out and risk making them the face of a legally questionable endeavor by the White House,” reports the New York Times.
Trump said he will meet with Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado next week — and that he would accept the award she has said she wants to share with him, reports the Washington Post.
MCM has indeed offered to share the prize. In a sign of our times, there’s a Snopes post on the subject. Spoiler: the Venezuelan opposition can’t just make Trump a Nobel laureate.
Bolivia
In Bolivia, protesters maintain significant blockades on roads — 32 reported yesterday, blocking of La Paz and other major cities, and complicating shipping routes to productive areas — attempting to thwart President Rodrigo Paz’s package of economic reforms, reports Infobae.
Vice President Edman Lara has declared himself in opposition to the government and in support of the protesters who dislike the cuts in fuel subsidies. “Bolivia doesn’t just have a brand new government that is sorting itself out. There is a jockeying for position to see who leads the opposition to the government. VP Lara, the unions, Evo, others in the old MAS leadership, and the far right will all be positioning themselves as President Paz struggles to keep his honeymoon going into the new year,” argues James Bosworth. (Latin America Risk Report)