---
title: "Venezuela frees 39 more political prisoners after American-backed talks"
description: "The releases follow a second round of negotiations between the interim government and the opposition"
author: "Albion Grey"
published: 2026-09-27T01:42:46Z
modified: 2026-09-27T06:14:07Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/venezuela-frees-39-more-political-prisoners-after-american-b-5a27bf
language: en
tags: ["venezuela", "politics", "prisoners", "maduro", "rubio", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Venezuela frees 39 more political prisoners after American-backed talks

*The releases follow a second round of negotiations between the interim government and the opposition*

By Albion Grey · September 27, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/venezuela-frees-39-more-political-prisoners-after-american-b-5a27bf

## In brief

- Rights group JEP says 39 political prisoners were freed from Venezuelan prisons between Friday and Saturday
- Those freed include eight women accused of “narco-terrorism” in 2021 and six accused over a 2020 US-backed plot
- The releases followed a second round of Washington-backed talks between the interim government and the opposition
- Venezuela has been run by a caretaker government since US forces captured former president Nicolas Maduro in January
- In August the government said it had freed 131 people considered political prisoners

In Venezuela these days, political prisoners come out the way concessions used to: in carefully counted batches. Between Friday and Saturday, 39 dissidents were freed from various prisons, according to Justicia, Encuentro y Perdon, a human-rights group, following a second round of Washington-backed negotiations between the country’s interim government and the opposition.

Among them, the group said, were eight women accused of “narco-terrorism” in 2021 and six people accused of working with the United States in a 2020 attempt to overthrow the former president, Nicolas Maduro. The composition of the list is telling: those accused of plotting with Washington are now freed at Washington’s negotiating table.

The country has been run since January by a caretaker administration headed by Delcy Rodriguez, Mr Maduro’s former vice-president, after American forces captured him and his wife on narco-terrorism charges and flew them to New York, a fact confirmed by [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/maduro-is-out-its-unclear-who-is-running-venezuela-2026-01-04/) at the time. Ms Rodriguez has since promised elections, pledging them days before the release, according to [The Nation](https://www.nation.com.pk/25-Sep-2026/venezuela-s-interim-president-promises-election-maduro-ousted), a Pakistani daily. Each batch of freed prisoners seems to mark a stage in the talks.

Nor is this the largest such payment so far: in August the government said it had freed [131 people considered political prisoners](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/15/venezuela-says-131-political-prisoners-freed-amid-post-maduro-talks), Al Jazeera reported. The arithmetic suggests a process with some way still to run, and a negotiating calendar kept behind bars.