The acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, affirmed this Saturday that 1,046 people deprived of liberty have returned to their homes since she assumed power, in what the Chavista regime presents as part of a national reconciliation process.
The announcement was made through her account on X, without specifying the exact period to which the figure corresponds.
"Venezuela reaffirms its commitment to national reconciliation. 1,046 compatriots who were incarcerated have returned to their homes as part of the agreements reached among Venezuelans. We will continue to move forward responsibly," Rodríguez wrote.
The figure matches exactly what was provided on Friday by the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who noted that 1,046 Venezuelans have been released from prisons since January 3, 2026, the date when U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in Caracas.
Rubio described the releases as a "crucial step for the reconciliation process" and warned that Washington will continue to "closely monitor" the fulfillment of commitments within the three-phase plan: stabilization, recovery, and transition.
The announcement comes one day after the Venezuelan government released an additional 131 political prisoners through alternatives to incarceration, as determined by the courts at the request of the Public Ministry, as part of the Program for Peace and Democratic Coexistence established by Rodríguez herself.
However, the official figures have not been fully verified. The NGO Foro Penal, which independently monitors the releases, confirmed by the close of Friday only 64 out of the 131 announced releases, warning that the verification process was still ongoing. Its latest report recorded more than 390 active political prisoners in the country.
The releases occur following the conclusion of the first formal dialogue cycle between chavismo and the opposition, held from August 7 to 12 at La Carlota Air Base in Caracas, where both parties reached agreements regarding the renewal of the Supreme Court of Justice.
From the opposition, María Corina Machado attributed the releases to the pressure from the Trump administration. "Your freedom and that of the recently released citizens has been made possible thanks to [...] President Donald Trump and the government of the United States, which, by bringing Maduro to justice, opened the way for the release of all political prisoners," she wrote on X. Machado, excluded from formal negotiations since late July for not being part of the National Assembly elected in 2015, promised not to relent in her demand: "We will not rest until EVERYONE is reunited with their families and our country is fully FREE."
Critical voices questioned the real impact of the measures. Analyst Pedro Mario Burelli summarized the skepticism of opposition sectors with a direct question: "Why not more? Why not everyone?"
The Venezuelan regime, for its part, denies that there are political prisoners in the country and insists that those detained committed crimes, a stance rejected by human rights organizations and opposition parties that demand the full release of all inmates for political reasons.
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