The figures don’t add up
The president in charge, Delcy Rodríguez, assured this Friday that there are already 626 people who have been released. He announced this during the installation of the ‘Program for Coexistence and Peace’, an initiative that, according to the government, seeks to stabilize the country after the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
But there is a problem: the numbers don’t match.
“There are sectors that persist in manipulating and maneuvering with figures through lies,” said Rodríguez.
To try to settle the controversy, he said that on Monday he will have a call with Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Your request will be clear: that your office verify the lists of released prisoners.
The other side of the numbers
While the government speaks of hundreds, civil organizations paint a very different picture. The Penal Forum, which monitors the prison situation in the country, reported only 151 releases as of Tuesday. According to them, 777 people remain detained for political reasons.
The authorities flatly deny that there are ‘political prisoners’. They accuse those detained of conspiring to destabilize the government.
The official silence on the names and total number of people to be released has generated an agonizing wait. Relatives crowd at the doors of the prisons looking for clues and information that the State does not provide.
A relationship with the UN full of ups and downs
The request to Türk is significant for its historical context. Just seven months ago, the National Assembly (with a pro-government majority) declared him persona non grata. The legislators even asked that Venezuela withdraw from that office while he was in charge.
The relationship between Caracas and this organization has been up and down. The office in Venezuela closed in February 2024, accused by the government of helping ‘coup plotters’. It reopened in December of the same year.
Last May, Türk renewed his criticism. Since mid-2024, his office has documented a series of violations: arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and torture, particularly in the electoral context.
Now, it is from that same office that Rodríguez asks for a seal of veracity for his figures. A diplomatic turn that shows how fluid the Venezuelan political terrain is.
