Venezuela says more than 100 political prisoners have been released

# Venezuela says more than 100 political prisoners have been released

IO Digest Desk

Venezuela says it has released more than 100 prisoners described by the government as political detainees, though human-rights groups say the number of people freed is lower.

The Ministry of Penitentiary Services said on 12 January 2026 that 116 prisoners had been released “in the past few hours”, following an earlier wave of releases. The government said those freed had been deprived of liberty for acts associated with disrupting the constitutional order and undermining national stability. Two Italian citizens were also released.

The Foro Penal human-rights group gave a different count, saying only 41 people had been freed earlier on Monday, including 24 who were released overnight. The gap between the official and activist tallies highlights the difficulty of confirming numbers in a fast-moving political case involving prisoners the government does not fully describe in public.

The releases came after pressure from US President Donald Trump, according to Al Jazeera’s report. The article said Trump had claimed Washington was in charge of the country following the military operation that led to the abduction of Nicolás Maduro on 3 January. Maduro now faces drug-trafficking charges and is being held in a prison in New York. Trump celebrated the prisoner release and said he hoped those freed would remember how lucky they were that the USA intervened.

Political detainees have long been a major human-rights issue in Venezuela. The report said rights groups estimate there are between 800 and 1,200 political prisoners in the country. The releases began on Thursday and appear to be part of a broader shift created by Washington’s actions and by pressure on Caracas from international actors.

The diplomatic aftershocks are also visible elsewhere. On the same day, opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado met Pope Leo XIV in a private audience. The Vatican had already urged Venezuela to protect its sovereignty and respect the will and rights of its people.

The release of prisoners does not by itself settle Venezuela’s political crisis, but it does show how quickly the ground is shifting after Maduro’s removal. For the government, the move can be presented as a gesture tied to national celebration. For opposition figures and human-rights groups, it is a partial and contested concession made under extraordinary external pressure.

What is clear from the supplied evidence is that detainees are being freed, the numbers remain disputed, and the political context is dominated by an abrupt change in power and a sharp American intervention that has transformed the calculations of Caracas and its opponents alike.