Key facts
- Foro Penal, a Venezuelan prisoners' rights group, said 322 political detainees remained in detention.
- The State Department said Rubio and Blanco discussed reforms aimed at laying the groundwork for free, fair and credible elections.
- The State Department said the US remained committed to Trump's three-phase plan of stabilization, economic recovery and political reconciliation, and democratic transition.
- Rubio said a week before the talks that Venezuela's election infrastructure had to be replaced for fresh elections to be valid.
- Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as interim president after Maduro's seizure and has the backing of the Trump administration, according to the report.
- Machado, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025, has pushed for elections in 2027.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Venezuela to release the political prisoners still in detention during talks with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Oliver Blanco on Monday, November 2, the US State Department said. The department said the two also discussed reforms aimed at laying the groundwork for free, fair and credible elections.
More than 1,000 political prisoners have been freed since US forces seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a military raid on Caracas on January 3 and took him to New York, where he faces trial on drug-trafficking and torture charges. Venezuelan prisoners' rights group Foro Penal said 322 people remain in detention.
The release of political prisoners has long been a demand of opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 and returned to Venezuela on October 25 after almost a year in exile. One of her first meetings was with relatives of political detainees. Many of those held were arrested after the 2024 presidential election, which the government-loyal National Electoral Council declared Maduro had won even though tally copies collected by the opposition and verified by independent media suggested the opposition candidate had won. The Carter Center, which sent observers, said the vote could not be considered democratic, and a UN fact-finding mission found the government orchestrated a harsh repression against perceived opponents in the months that followed.
After Maduro's seizure, his vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, was sworn in as interim president. She has the backing of the Trump administration, while opposition parties in Venezuela have expressed impatience with the pace of reforms. In its statement, the State Department said the US remained committed to President Donald Trump's three-phase plan of stabilization, economic recovery and political reconciliation, and democratic transition.
A week before the talks, Rubio told journalists Venezuela's election infrastructure had to be replaced for fresh elections to be valid, saying it needed to happen quickly under established timelines. Days later, Rodríguez said in a televised address that there would be elections under a renewed electoral authority but gave no timeline. Machado has pushed for a vote in 2027, at one point suggesting July 24, 2027, the anniversary of Simón Bolivar's birth, before returning to calling for a vote within the next year.