There was disappointment on the streets of Caracas on Friday as only a handful of prisoners emerged from the Heilcoide and other prisons, despite a promise from a major regime figure that a “significant” number of people would get their freedom.
Jorge Rodriguez, Chavista president of the National Assembly and older brother of acting president Delcy Rodriguez, had announced the releases as a goodwill gesture earlier in the day.
As of Friday afternoon, Foro Penal, an NGO that advocates for political prisoners in Venezuela, said that only nine had been released and 811 remained in prison.
Early reports had indicated that Juan Pablo Guanipa, perhaps the most prominent of the opposition leaders currently held by the regime, would be freed. But that liberation failed to occur.
There was also frustration and heartbreak for family members and friends of detainees in Canada, including Guanipa’s childhood friend Luz Urdaneta in Calgary.
“It’s just hard to believe that somebody so hard-working and so dedicated to the well-being of the country is a prisoner, and without contact, without rights,” she told CBC News.
Change of tune from Trump administration
Guanipa was arrested last May, after playing an active role in the election campaign of opposition candidates Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado. He is a former governor of Zulia state, home to Venezuela’s second-largest city Maracaibo, and a former vice-president of the National Assembly.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Guanipa’s arrest “unjustified and arbitrary” at the time, and “reaffirmed the United States’ support for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela and the release of all political prisoners.”
The U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro unlocked new hope for the hundreds of political dissidents lost in Venezuela’s notorious prisons. For The National, CBC’s Evan Dyer speaks to Venezuelans now living in Canada who say they want to see the Trump administration do more to free their family and friends.
But since the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, the Trump administration appears to have changed its tune on the restoration of democracy to Venezuela, and does not appear to be using the leverage it claims it has over the rump Maduro regime to demand the immediate release of prisoners.
In comments laying out the U.S. plan this week, Rubio said the Trump administration intended to complete a first phase of “stabilization” of Venezuela before moving on to a second phase of “recovery” at an unspecified later date. Only in that second phase would the administration “begin to create the process of reconciliation nationally within Venezuela, so that the opposition forces can be amnestied and released from prisons.”
Friends and family members of the detained, many of whom have suffered torture and severe deprivation in inhumane conditions, say the delay is inexplicable.
“What are we waiting for? Why? Why do we keep those people suffering for no reason?” said Urdaneta.
Doubts about intentions
Like many Venezuelans, Urdaneta supported the capture of Maduro. But she has found some statements by the Trump administration since then raise doubts about its intentions.
“Really the credibility of of Trump administration, I think, is on the plate, and we are all expecting for them to follow what they promised, right? Which is a democratic country with free elections, beneficial to all Venezuelans.”
As with the issue of political prisoners, the Trump administration also appears to have backtracked on the restoration of Venezuelan democracy.
On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “only time will tell” when Venezuela recovers its independence. Asked if U.S. tutelage over Venezuela could continue for as long as a year, he replied “I would say much longer than that.”
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. recognized the opposition candidate Gonzalez as president-elect of Venezuela after his overwhelming victory in July 2024, which was nullified by the Maduro regime.
Two days after Trump’s inauguration, Rubio reaffirmed that Gonzalez was the “rightful Venezuelan president” and called for “the unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners in line with the peaceful democratic aspirations of the Venezuelan people.”
But this week, he said Gonzalez was “not a legitimate president” because the 2024 election was “illegitimate.”
And yet the administration has also ruled out holding new elections any time soon.
“They couldn’t have an election,” Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday. “They wouldn’t even know how to have an election right now. The country’s become Third World.”
In fact, Venezuela has a proven track record of successfully holding national elections; the problem has been the Maduro regime’s refusal to respect the results.
More talk of resources than democracy
Trump administration officials have continued to emphasize the exploitation of Venezuela’s resources over issues such as democracy, elections or the release of prisoners.
Vice-President JD Vance had little to say about Venezuelan democracy or sovereignty when asked by Fox News’s Jesse Watters about the purpose of the American intervention in Venezuela.
“We’re going to be able to control the incredible natural resources of Venezuela, which is good for America in a few ways,” he enthused.
Trump gave a similar response on Air Force One when a reporter asked: “Are you going to demand that Delcy Rodriguez allow opposition figures to return or free any political prisoners?”
“We haven’t gotten to that,” Trump responded. “Right now, what we want to do is fix up the oil.”
And while Trump has denigrated Machado, falsely stating that she lacks support within the country, he appeared on Friday to suggest he had no such issues with the Chavistas who are still the de facto rulers of Venezuela under U.S. tutelage.
“We’re getting along extremely well with the people who are running Venezuela,” he said during a meeting with oil executives at the White House, flanked by Vance and Rubio.
The rhetoric has caused stirrings of doubt among the large number of Venezuelans who wanted U.S. intervention and welcomed the capture of the Venezuelan dictator, including petroleum engineer Jorge Robles in Edmonton.
“I was a bit disappointed not only by what President Trump said, but also what he didn’t say,” Robles told CBC News. “For example, he didn’t recognize the elected president Edmundo Gonzalez and also he didn’t say anything about the political prisoners.”
Foreign dominance already exists, say some Venezuelans
Robles is quick to add that foreigners who oppose intervention in Venezuela should not imagine they speak on behalf of Venezuelans who have suffered under the Chavez and Maduro regimes.
“For people that are protesting against the intervention of the United States, I can say we appreciate their concerns. But this is not as bad as being bullied by your own in-house regime.”
Robles adds that the Maduro regime also threw Venezuela open to foreign domination by Russia, Cuba and other countries.
“That has been happening for years. So believe me, most Venezuelans see what is happening right now as a positive move … [but] we don’t want to change that for a different intervention.”
He said that “doing the right thing” for human rights in Venezuela “is also the most convenient thing” for the Americans.
“Venezuela in [a] new era of democratic government is going to be open for business, but it’s not open for sale. We are an independent, sovereign country. We want to get back to that,” he said.
A missing husband and father
In Montreal, the wife and children of Oswaldo Garcia Palomo also had to deal with disappointment and uncertainty as he failed to appear among the few liberated prisoners.
A former colonel in Venezuela’s National Guard, Garcia Palomo was accused of plotting rebellion against the Maduro regime. His wife and family members were detained and tortured before fleeing Venezuela for the safety of Canada, but have had no contact with him for two years.
He’s believed to be held in the notorious Rodeo Uno prison outside Caracas, and his family says he has suffered years of abuse and harsh treatment.
His family also strongly supported the capture of Maduro, but has struggled to understand why liberation of prisoners should wait for a second phase as suggested by Rubio.
“Political prisoners have to be step number one,” his son, Oswaldo Garcia, told CBC News. “It’s going to start healing a country. That’s how we’re going to start rebuilding this country.”
Garcia said he has made an effort to understand the logic of the Trump administration in keeping most of the dictatorship in place under Rodriguez. But he says there is no logical reason to allow that dictatorship to continue to hold and abuse prisoners.
“I know some things will take time, but this one is really simple,” he said. “You can do this without waiting for other things to happen. This is just opening the door.”
Urdaneta says Venezuelans who have waited so long to be free need to see real changes occurring to have faith in American intentions.
“We don’t have Maduro, but we have the same things happening, the same people that have tortured and murdered in power. So what is the change there? It’s just a different name as president?
“No, we need actions, we need things to happen so we can see and believe that this process that Trump and his administration started will be successful, and we’ll end up with a democratic country and a free country. That’s what all Venezuelans want.”
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