Last month Edison Torres Fernández, a 52-year-old police officer, was arrested and imprisoned by Venezuelan authorities. He had been charged with treason after sharing text messages that were critical of the government.
On Friday last he died in state custody. He is the 18th political prisoner to die under the Venezuelan regime’s supervision since 2014.
While the state prosecution service said he suffered a stroke and heart attack, campaigners said the blame lay squarely with the Venezuelan government under interim leader Delcy Rodríguez.
The dramatic removal of Nicolás Maduro from power following a US raid, and the unexpected alliance between the US and Rodríguez, raised cautious hopes that Venezuela could become less repressive.
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Last Thursday, Rodriguez’s brother, Jorge Rodríguez, a senior Venezuelan official, announced that the government would be freeing an “important number” of political prisoners.
US president Donald Trump raised expectations further on Saturday, announcing on social media that “Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners.”
However, the slow pace of the ensuing releases has raised questions in Venezuela over Rodríguez’s intentions, as well as her ability to impose her will on the factions of her government that control the various security agencies and their prisons.
The prisoner releases so far have been on piecemeal basis, often taking place in the early hours of the morning, outside the glare of media attention.
While the government claims that up to 116 have been freed, campaigners report only 42 people released as of Monday this week.
Furthermore, non-governmental organisations say those “freed” are on conditional release. This means they are under restrictive measures, legal proceedings remain open against them and they could be arrested again.
“There are internal factors within the dictatorship that want to slow down and even prevent this release process, because clearly the dictatorship’s hostages have always been bargaining chips in times of pressure,” said Demóstenes Quijada, a former political prisoner of the regime and adviser to opposition figure Juan Guaidó.
“The release of all political prisoners [could] mean the fall of the dictatorship. This puts those who make up what remains of the dictatorship at existential risk.”
Quijada says the ousting of Maduro appears to have weakened rather than crippled the regime, noting that Venezuela is not a typical dictatorship.
“It is a criminal structure, a kind of bureau or table where the different power centres that control the situation meet,” Quijada adds.
In all, campaigners estimate that more than 700 political prisoners remain in the country’s jails. It remains to be see how many will be released and over what time, and whether the country will transition to free and fair elections. To date, both sides have prioritised measures focused on issues related to oil, energy and trade. The electoral issue has not been addressed.
For many Venezuelans opposed to the regime, there is still hope for change; some see what has happened as an opportunity to finally end the dictatorship.
They see the meeting between María Corina Machado, Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader, and Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday as a hopeful development. On the agenda, we are told, is the Venezuelan population’s desire for democracy.
Even if oil has dominated discussions around Venezuela’s future so far, opposition figures prefer to dwell on the opportunity it presents for wider change.
“This is the ideal moment for the international community, which turned a blind eye in the past, to finally become more proactive in addressing this situation,” said Quijada.
“In this context, we depend on the foreign policy of the United States. And that shouldn’t be demonised in any way. It’s a pragmatic approach: we have to ensure that what we want aligns with what the US administration wants, so that this process moves forward in the direction we all desire.”
