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The family of Venezuelan detainee Diógenes Angulo appeared shocked as he left prison in San Francisco de Yal after one year and five months in prison.
He was detained two days before the 2024 presidential election after posting a video of an opposition demonstration in Barinas, the hometown of late President Hugo Chavez.
as he emerged from San Francisco’s De Yard prison, about an hour’s drive south of the capital. caracasOn January 3, he learned that former President Nicolás Maduro had been captured by U.S. forces in a nighttime raid in the capital.
Angulo told The Associated Press that his faith gave him the strength to keep going while in detention.
“grateful GodI will enjoy my family time again,” he said, adding that others still detained were “in good condition” and had high hopes of being released soon.
family Relatives behind bars gathered outside jails in Caracas and other communities for a third straight day on Saturday, hoping for news of possible releases.
On Thursday, the Venezuelan government pledged to release what it said was a large number of prisoners.
But as of Saturday, only 11 had been released, compared with nine a day earlier, according to Foro Penal, a Caracas prisoner rights group. The group said 809 people remained imprisoned. It was unclear whether Angulo was among the 11 people released.
Relatives of activist Rocío San Miguel, one of the first to be released and move to Spain, said in a statement that her release was “not a complete freedom, but a precautionary measure to replace the deprivation of liberty”.
Prominent members of the country’s political opposition were detained and remain in jail following the 2024 presidential election, including former congressman Freddy Supelano, former governor Juan Pablo Guanipa and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s lawyer Perkins Rocha. The son-in-law of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez also remains imprisoned.
A week after the U.S. military intervention in Caracas, Venezuelans allied with the government marched in cities across the country demanding the return of Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores. The two were arrested and transferred to the United States, where they face charges including conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in the cities of Caracas, Trujillo, Nuevo Espata and Miranda, many waving Venezuelan flags. In Caracas, crowds chanted: “Maduro, keep going, the people are rising.”
Acting President Delcy Rodriguez, speaking at a public social sector event in Caracas, again condemned Saturday’s U.S. military action.
“There is a government, the government of President Nicolás Maduro, that I have a duty to take over while his kidnapping continues… We will not stop condemning criminal aggression,” she said of Maduro’s ouster.
On Saturday, President of the United States Donald Trump “I love the Venezuelan people and I have made Venezuela prosperous and safe again,” he said on social media.
After a shocking military campaign to oust Maduro, Trump said the United States would rule the South American country and demanded access to oil resources, which he promised to use “for the benefit of both peoples.”
Venezuela and the United States announced on Friday that they were evaluating resuming diplomatic ties severed since 2019 and reopening their respective diplomatic missions. The U.S. State Department said a delegation from Donald Trump’s administration arrived in the South American country on Friday.
Amid global anticipation over the South American country’s fate, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Ivan Gil echoed Pope Leo XIV, who on Friday called for peace and “respect for the will of the Venezuelan people.”
“Venezuela respects the Pope and his spiritual authority, reaffirming that it is a country that builds, works and defends its sovereignty in peace and dignity,” Gil said on his Telegram account, inviting the pope to “understand more deeply this reality.”