Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela's National Assembly and brother of acting dictator Delcy Rodríguez, announced Thursday that the regime will be releasing a "number of important Venezuelan people and foreigners" as a "gesture" to keep "the peace."

While Jorge Rodríguez didn't provide a list of who would be set free, the human rights lawyer Rocío San Miguel has already been released, according to her family. San Miguel, whose arrest last February drew public outcry, was detained in Caracas' main airport along with five relatives. Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab accused her of plotting to assassinate dictator Nicolás Maduro and other officials**.** She was subsequently held at the notorious El Helicoide prison on charges of treason, conspiracy, and terrorism, and denied access to her lawyer or family for months.

Another prominent political prisoner is María Oropeza, a young Venezuelan libertarian activist arrested in 2024 for speaking out against the regime's political persecution and for declaring Edmundo González the legitimate president-elect on social media. Oropeza managed to livestream her arrest through Instagram. Two days after she was taken into custody, Venezuela's military counterintelligence agency released a chilling video showing Oropeza being held in an armored vehicle, set to music from the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street. There's no word yet on whether Oropeza has been released.

Similarly, Pablo and Lubin Montilva were arrested just a couple of days ago for firing a revolver into the air in the middle of the deserted countryside when Maduro was captured. The two were accused of "celebrating the kidnapping of President Maduro," and charged with terrorism, treason, and illegal weapons possession, offenses that could carry a maximum 30-year prison sentence under Venezuelan law. It is unknown whether they've been released.

Under Maduro's rule, more than 53,000 Venezuelans have been victims of illegitimate deprivation of liberty for political reasons, according to Provea, a Venezuelan human rights organization. The regime has used a "revolving door" tactic—releasing current political prisoners and then arresting new ones right afterwards.

In Venezuela, prisoners are routinely tortured. Such is the case of Fernando Albán, a 52-year-old opposition councilman, who was arrested at Caracas' main airport in October 2018 after denouncing the Maduro regime at the United Nations. He was suffocated, submerged in water, and given electric shocks. He died from his injuries, and his body was from the 10th floor of the regime's intelligence service headquarters.