He Committee of Mothers Defending the Truth reported this Thursday on the publication of 87 people who was arrested in Venezuela in connection with the protests that erupted after the 2024 presidential election, when President Nicolás Maduro was re-elected for a third term.
In a press release, the group stated that the publications had occurred during early morning this January 1st in the Tocoron prisonin the state of Aragua (north), a center where a large proportion of the people arrested during the demonstrations were held.
“This achievement, which fills us with joy, however, is inadequate. “This is a limited freedom because they continue to stand trial and take precautionary measures, and many other of our relatives are still arbitrarily deprived of their freedom,” the committee text said.
The new releases add to those already reported on December 25, when the committee reported 71 and the government said there were 99.
According to the Committee of Mothers in Defense of the Truth, 87 new political prisoners were released from the Aragua Penitentiary in Tocorón in the early hours of January 1st. The relatives received the call announcing the release at 3:00 a.m…. pic.twitter.com/FfO67grv64
— Venezuelan Prisons Observatory (@oveprisiones) January 1, 2026
However, NGOs such as the Penal Forum spoke out after the “verification” of more than 60.
The family committee said that the fact that releases “resumed is a product of….” Fight of hundreds of mothers and relatives who mobilized for more than a yearto demand justice and who have found the solidarity of people and popular organizations in their wake.
“Hundreds of families across the country continue to be affected by injustice. That is why we at the Committee of Mothers in Defense of the Truth insist that the country needs a general amnesty that grants full freedom to all people arbitrarily detained for political reasons,” the group affirmed.
Last October, the mothers of the detainees announced that the release process had begun remained suspended since March 2025Therefore, they asked for a review of their children’s cases.
After the presidential elections of July 28, 2024 A crisis broke out in Venezuelaafter the disputed re-election of Maduro announced by the electoral authority – controlled by officials linked to Chavismo – and the complaint of “fraud” by the majority opposition claiming the victory of Edmundo González Urrutia.
In this context More than 2,400 people were arrested Most of them were released and, according to the prosecutor’s office, charged as “terrorists”, although several NGOs and opposition parties defend them as innocent and assure that they are political prisoners.
The Maduro executive assures this the country is “free of political prisoners” and that those designated as such will be imprisoned for “committing terrible criminal acts.”
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