<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s acting president has claimed that the regime\u2019s release of political prisoners sent a \u201cvery clear message\u201d that the country was \u201copening up to a new political moment\u201d, days after the seizure and rendition of the dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>.<\/p>\n Delcy Rodr\u00edguez also vowed to continue the releases and accused NGOs that have described the process as slow and opaque of \u201clying to the world and trying to sell falsehoods about Venezuela\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe message is very clear: it is a Venezuela opening up to a new political moment that allows understanding amid divergence and ideological political diversity,\u201d said Rodr\u00edguez in a speech alongside her brother \u2013 whom many believe is effectively running the country with her \u2013 the congressional president, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, and the interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, who oversees the regime\u2019s repression.<\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez, who had served as vice-president until Maduro\u2019s capture but was kept in power by Donald Trump, added, however, that dissent would only be allowed \u201cwith respect for human rights\u201d. \u201cMessages of hatred, intolerance and acts of violence will not be permitted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She then went on to attack NGOs working with political prisoners, alleging \u2013 without providing evidence \u2013 that \u201cwell-known organisations\u201d were charging detainees\u2019 families for their services.<\/p>\n Although Rodr\u00edguez did not name any groups, her brother had the previous day explicitly singled out Foro Penal, the highly regarded organisation that estimates there are still about 800 political prisoners in Venezuela and has repeatedly said its work is carried out on a voluntary basis.<\/p>\n Many in the country also warn that, despite efforts by the regime to appear more open after the seizure and rendition of Maduro<\/a>, repression continues, with residents still having their mobile phones searched by armed militias on the streets and afraid to engage in any form of public protest.<\/p>\n Local media reported<\/a> that 15 teenagers were detained on 5 January for \u201ccelebrating\u201d Maduro\u2019s capture in the city of Barcelona, about 300km (186 miles) from the capital, Caracas. After a local backlash, the teenagers were released<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Since the unprecedented US ground attack on a South American country, a state of emergency has been in force in Venezuela, ordering the \u201cimmediate search and capture of anyone involved in the promotion or support of the US armed attack\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis kind of power reshuffle produces so much administrative chaos and a lack of a clear chain of command\u201d said Zair Mundaray, the former Venezuelan senior prosecutor. \u201c[The regime] is seeking to project a very civic image, releasing some people, while others are being jailed at the same time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez said that the regime was carrying out a \u201cmass process of releases\u201d that he claimed already amounted to more than 400 people \u2013 on Wednesday, his sister said the figure had reached 406 \u2013, a figure that includes two rounds of releases carried out before Maduro\u2019s capture, on Christmas Day and New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n NGOs monitoring political detentions, however, say fewer releases have so far been independently verified.<\/p>\n The organisation Justicia, Encuentro y Perd\u00f3n, for example, confirmed<\/a> only 157 of the 186 releases announced earlier, and 100 of the 116 that Rodr\u00edguez claimed had taken place since last week.<\/p>\n NGOs estimate that there are still close to 1,000 political prisoners in Venezuela and are demanding the release of all of them, fully and without conditions. Charges remain in place against many of those who have so far been freed, who are also barred from making public statements.<\/p>\n A US state department spokesperson said in a brief statement on Tuesday: \u201cWe welcome the release of detained Americans in Venezuela. This is an important step in the right direction by the interim authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n There was no confirmation, however, of how many US citizens were released, although the number is estimated to be at least four<\/a>.<\/p>\n In posts on his social media accounts, Trump said the release of prisoners had led him to cancel a second wave of attacks. Last Saturday, he wrote: \u201cI hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done. I HOPE THEY NEVER FORGET! If they do, it will not be good for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Reuters reported<\/a> that the White House has filed for court warrants to seize dozens more tankers linked to Venezuela\u2019s oil trade, though it remains unclear how many seizure warrants the US has sought and how many it has already obtained.<\/p>\n The US military and coast guard have seized five vessels in recent weeks in international waters that were either carrying Venezuelan oil or had done so in the past.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Donald Trump is due to receive Venezuela\u2019s main opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, at the White House. Many had expected her to take charge of the country after Maduro\u2019s fall, but she was sidelined by the US president, who instead chose to keep the former dictator\u2019s entire cabinet in place.<\/p>\n Bloomberg reported<\/a> that the acting president, Rodr\u00edguez, will send a representative to Washington \u2013 on the same day as Machado\u2019s visit \u2013 to meet senior US officials: F\u00e9lix Plasencia, the current head of mission at the Venezuelan embassy in London and a former foreign minister.<\/p>\n Venezuela and the US resumed talks last week on reopening embassies in both countries.<\/p>\n Also in an apparent effort to appear more open, Rodr\u00edguez and the powerful interior minister, Diosdado Cabello \u2013 who controls<\/a> much of the regime\u2019s apparatus of repression \u2013 have returned<\/a> to X<\/a> on Tuesday, more than a year after Maduro censored the social media platform. It remains unclear whether the ban has been lifted for all Venezuelans, who had been forced to use VPNs to access the social media platform X.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Venezuelan #regime #touts #mass #release #political #prisoners #repression #continues #Venezuela<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Venezuela\u2019s acting president h… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}