Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, reported this Saturday on the release of another 17 political prisoners in Venezuela from the Zone 7 penitentiary center. According to Foro Penal, more than 600 people are still behind bars in the country for political reasons. Some of his relatives began a hunger strike to demand faster releases.

First modification: 02/14/2026 - 17:29 Last modification: 02/15/2026 - 03:30

To display this YouTube content, you must allow advertising and audience measurement cookies.

An extension on your browser appears to be blocking the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must disable it on this site.

New releases in Venezuela. The president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, confirmed that at least 17 political prisoners were released this Saturday in the detention center of the Bolivarian National Police known as Zone 7, in the metropolitan area of ​​the capital, Caracas.

"Within the framework of the Amnesty Law, 17 people deprived of liberty in Zone 7 are being released at this moment. Let us continue this route to build a democratic coexistence between brothers. All united for La Paz!" Rodríguez confirmed in his X account.

The president of the Assembly, brother of the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, confirmed the news in his publication along with four photographs in which he is seen surrounded by people, presumably relatives of prisoners.

To display this content from X (Twitter), you must allow audience measurement and advertising cookies.

The fact was also corroborated by the Human Rights Committee of the Vente Venezuela Party (VV), led by María Corina Machado.

"At this time, today, February 14, the release of political prisoners in Zone 7 begins. So far 17 people have been confirmed. That number is not enough! There are still many more unjustly kidnapped. They have to release them all now! Immediate freedom for all political prisoners!" wrote the VV Committee in X.

Vente Venezuela's publication was also accompanied by graphic material: the movement attached two videos, in which prisoners, men and women, are seen reunited, amidst applause, with people on the outskirts of Zone 7.

"Welcome to freedom!" they say to those freed.

That said, the Venezuelan Parliament postponed to next week the second and final debate necessary to approve an amnesty bill for the cases of political prisoners since 1999, with the opposition in the streets demanding the release of those detainees.

The Venezuelan bill proposes a general and full amnesty that extinguishes criminal liability. The text contemplates the immediate release of political prisoners, the extinction of ongoing judicial processes, the elimination of criminal records and the restitution of seized assets. That is, it seeks to completely close the cases.

So far, the Legislature, controlled by Chavismo, has approved up to article six of the so-called Amnesty Law for Democratic Coexistence, and maintains differences in point number seven, which requires those prosecuted and convicted to appear before Justice.

For its part, the interim government denies that there are people detained in Venezuela for political reasons and indicates that they committed some type of crime.

Relatives of those considered political prisoners begin a hunger strike

As a protest against the delay in the releases and in the processing of the amnesty law, a dozen women began a hunger strike this Saturday to ask for speed in the release of their loved ones.

Wearing face masks, a dozen women lay down in a line at the entrance to Zone 7, where relatives - some chained - have been camping for more than a month. Next to them they left a handwritten list with the names of the strikers.

"We demand with this that the release of all be realized and real. It is fair, it is fair. We have been doing this for a long time," Evelin Quiaro, mother of a 30-year-old young man who has been detained since November 2025, told the AFP agency.

His son was accused of terrorism, criminal association and financing of terrorism. But she denounces that it was an arrest for political reasons.

"It is obvious that we are going to exhaust ourselves much more but it is already a drastic measure that we see as necessary to end all this," said Quiaro, lying down and with an umbrella to cover herself from the relentless sun.

The balance of releases

Before this Saturday's releases, the NGO Foro Penal reported on Friday that a total of 644 people remain detained in Venezuela for political reasons.

According to the organization, of the total number of prisoners, 564 are men and 80 women. Likewise, of that group, 459 are civilians and 185 are military, while only one of them is a minor.

Among the political prisoners there are 55 foreigners or dual nationals.

Thus, the Penal Forum reported that until February 10 it had been able to verify a total of 431 releases from just over a month ago, not including the release of the 17 people this Saturday.

The United States bombs another boat in the Caribbean and three crew members died

On the other hand, the US Armed Forces destroyed another alleged “drug boat” in Caribbean waters, near Venezuela; operation in which at least three crew members lost their lives.

The attack was carried out on a route that the Southern Command identified as usually used by organized crime in international Caribbean waters, according to the own account of this delegation of US forces.

This week, the Southern Command, under the orders of the new force commander, Francis Donovan, carried out a total of three attacks.

There are already 40 attacks carried out by the United States in the Caribbean and the Pacific between August 2025 and the present, with a total death toll of 143, according to records reported by the United States Government.

Read alsoAt least two dead after new US attack against alleged drug boat near Colombia

Despite the rapprochement between the United States, led by Donald Trump, and Rodríguez's interim government, attacks near Venezuela on ships linked to drug trafficking persist, according to the United States.

For this reason, jurists, human rights defenders and regional leaders accuse Washington of extrajudicial executions. The Trump administration insists that the targets were transporting drugs, without providing evidence or publicly explaining the legal basis for attacking the vessels.

With EFE, AP and local media

Related keywords

The content you requested does not exist or is no longer available.