Release of Prisoner Highlights Ongoing Crisis in Venezuela

Thu Jan 22 2026 20:03:11 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Rafael Tudares, son-in-law of opposition leader Edmundo González, is freed after 380 days in prison, shedding light on Venezuela's political turmoil.

Rafael Tudares, the son-in-law of Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González, has been released from prison following 380 days of detention. His release follows a crackdown on Maduro's government critics, amid ongoing tensions under the interim presidency of Delcy Rodríguez. Over 150 detainees have been released in recent weeks, although rights organizations state that many others remain imprisoned under shaky legal circumstances.

Rafael Tudares, the son-in-law of Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González, has been released from prison, his wife has said, more than a year after he was detained as part of a crackdown on Maduro government critics and their relatives.

Mariana González said her husband had returned home after 380 days of unjust and arbitrary detention. Tudares is one of more than 150 detainees who have been released since the US military seized Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, in a nighttime raid and took him to New York to stand trial on drug-trafficking charges.

An NGO lobbying for the release of Venezuelan political prisoners warns that 777 still remain behind bars. Tension within the country remains high with Maduro's former vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, now in power having been sworn in as the acting president.

Rodríguez's interim government has received the backing of US President Donald Trump for agreeing to turn over up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to the US. The release of political prisoners had been among the first things the Trump administration had pushed Venezuela's interim government to do.

However, rights groups have denounced the slow pace of the releases and the fact that the number given by officials - 400 - falls far short of what they have been able to confirm. The NGO Foro Penal says it has so far only been able to verify the release of 151 political prisoners since 8 January, when the head of Venezuela's National Assembly announced that an important number of people would be freed as a gesture of peace following the US operation.

Tudares's imprisonment was one of the emblematic cases of the repression which followed in the wake of Venezuela's 2024 presidential election. His father-in-law, González, became the main challenger to the incumbent Maduro after the well-known opposition leader María Corina Machado was barred from running.

In the run-up to his inauguration, many opposition leaders and activists were seized by the security forces in an attempt to stifle any dissent. Fearing arrest, González had sought refuge in the Dutch embassy as early as September 2024 and gone into exile in Spain shortly afterwards. Three days before Maduro's inauguration, Tudares was seized by hooded men as he was taking his young children to see their ailing grandmother.

Mariana González took to X to thank people for their support in her fight for her husband's release, while also expressing the plight of many families still awaiting the return of their loved ones, emphasizing the continued issue of arbitrary detentions in Venezuela.