Venezuelan families of political prisoners stage protests as dialogue talks are postponed

Families of political prisoners in Venezuela installed a symbolic table on Tuesday, displaying the names and faces of detainees and reading a statement that stressed the urgency of protecting those held, even as the government‑opposition dialogue originally set for August 1 between President Delcy Rodríguez and opposition leader Dinorah Figuera was postponed. The gathering, organized by the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners (Clippve), invoked slogans such as “Libertad es humanidad” and demanded immediate release of all political detainees.

A separate vigil near the U.S. Embassy saw relatives of more than 70 people arrested in the April 2022 “Operation Trueno” in Guárico state denounce “judicial terrorism.” They reported that detainees – including merchants, doctors, musicians, athletes, and a cancer patient – have faced terrorism and organized‑crime charges without a judge assigned, and that UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention resolutions calling for their release have been ignored. Two court orders for release this year were not executed, and one detainee remains under a humanitarian measure.