Family members visit political prisoners in Venezuela for the first time since their detentions

Caracas.- Relatives of political prisoners in Venezuela claim to have visited their family members this Sunday for the first time since they were arrested, amid the wait for the releases after the authorities announced last Thursday the release of a “significant number of people”.

Outside the Rodeo I prison, near Caracas, Aurora Silva, wife of former deputy Freddy Superlano, said she was finally able to see him after “almost 18 months” since his detention, on July 30, 2024, in the midst of the post-election crisis. “I was able to see him after so long, I was able to observe through a glass, I was able to confirm that he is alive, which was my great fear, and that he is strong and convinced that he will be released soon,” said the activist, who said that, like her, there are “other people who entered today for the first time.” Silva affirmed that the political prisoners are “extremely strengthened” and “awaiting their releases”, and assured that her husband trusts that “this will end very soon”. “It’s a different Freddy, I hadn’t hugged him or heard from him in a year and almost six months,” said Silva, who reiterated the complaint that the former deputy “didn’t even have access to private defense” and that “he was practically in forced disappearance.”

You can read: Delcy Rodríguez assures that “The people command” and that in Venezuela the Government of Nicolás Maduro continues to govern

She assured that she and other family members will remain in the detention center “applying the necessary pressure in a civic manner” to achieve the release of “everyone”, while insisting on her call to the brothers Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez, the person in charge of the country and president of the Parliament, respectively, to “fulfill the commitment they made” regarding the release. For his part, Juan Carlos Lago, father of Army Captain Juan Carlos Lago Ochoa, said that this Sunday he was able to see his son for the first time since his detention on January 24, 2025. “It had been almost a year since I knew of his whereabouts. Thanks to the visit scheduled for today, I was able to see him, I confirmed that he is in good physical and mental health,” he said. The man stated that until now they had denied that he was being held there and that he believes it was because “they were following orders”. “With God’s favor, Venezuela will change. Liberation for all political prisoners,” Lago demanded. Non-governmental organizations and the majority opposition denounce that the process of releases has advanced at a snail’s pace. By noon local time this Sunday, the NGO Foro Penal had only recorded 17 releases, so it said that 803 political prisoners still remained, while the largest opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Platform (PUD), counted 22 releases by Saturday afternoon. The PUD called on the authorities to “speed up the release processes so that the suffering finally ceases.” Early this Sunday morning, the NGO Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners denounced the death in state custody of Edison José Torres Fernández, a 52-year-old police officer from the state of Portuguesa (west), who was arrested on December 9 for “sharing critical messages” against Chavismo.