Maduro’s prisoners remain behind bars
Venezuela’s interim government promised amnesty after Nicolás Maduro’s capture. Families say it never came.
Editor’s Note:
Today, May 3, marks four months since a U.S. military operation removed Venezuela’s leadership from power.
Regimes change. Promises get made. The world moves on. But here at The Counteroffensive, we remain steadfast.
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CARACAS, Venezuela – Gloria Morales was in Puerto La Cruz, a coastal city in Venezuela, when she heard a promise on her TV: the government would grant amnesty to all the people they had violated in the past 28 years.
The news came on January 8, 2026, less than a week after the U.S. military captured Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, the heads of Venezuela’s autocracy, to prosecute them for drug trafficking and international terrorism.
“As soon as I heard the news, I decided to travel to Caracas. I wanted to ensure my son’s freedom: a political prisoner of Maduro’s regime,” Gloria said.
It has been almost 4 months since the American military physically removed the Venezuelan president from power on January 3, 2026. Since then, Donald Trump has threatened to invade Greenland, continued to facilitate peace talks on the war in Ukraine, and, most recently, joined with Israel to launch a war against Iran. The world, and his administration, seem to have moved on from its hours-long operation in Caracas.
In reality, Delcy Rodriguez, the former vice president, took over the presidency. She is the leader of SEBIN, a Venezuelan intelligence agency, since 2018, and the former oil minister and economy minister until March 2026. Rodriguez has promised a better economy and a better judicial system. But Caracas has become the center of civil protest almost every day for the release of political prisoners and almost every week for higher wages and pensions.
The economy still has not recovered. And political prisoners who were promised amnesty once Maduro was removed from power are still waiting.
Going to Caracas was an easy decision for Gloria, but she came alone.
Gloria’s son, Rosmel Méndez, was arrested in 2020 because the regime accused him of a potential coup against Maduro, allegedly. They transferred him to Caracas, home to the only court that investigates cases of “terrorism” in the country. Six years have passed, and the judicial system has not given him a hearing.
Rosmel is not the only one: he and more than 450 people — children, women, and the elderly— are in similar situations, arrested without a hearing because the regime sees them, or someone they are connected to, as a threat.
Around 202 miles separated Puerto La Cruz and Caracas. Gloria traveled alone because her daughter-in-law had to take care of her two grandsons in their hometown, and her husband had to keep working in an economy whose inflation rose 400 percent in the last 3 months.
Now, she spends every night near El Helicoide — the ruins of a mall that the Maduro regime transformed into a torture center and the SEBIN headquarters — to demand a true democracy.
“I’ve gone to court multiple times, and they always tell me to give up. But I won’t. I won’t because there is a better chance for justice right now,” she said, surrounded by other mothers, and people, with similar stories, holding on to the promise of amnesty.
More than 115 days have passed since Delcy Rodríguez took power and the amnesty hasn’t reached Gloria’s son, alongside more than 500 women, men, and teens captured by the regime without due process.
Now, with the Venezuelan flag draped on her head and over her shoulders, Gloria started to modify some candles to brighten the incoming night.
“How many candles do we need? 100?” she asked her colleagues.
Some SEBIN officers surrounded Gloria and started recording her and her friends with their cellphones.
“No, no. It has to be more,” responded another woman, also a mother of a political prisoner. “We will write ‘100 days of dignity’ with those. We have more dignity than them.”
People were skeptical that the new Rodriguez administration would truly bring a better life to Venezuelans: it was true that political repression decreased in the last few months, but the same security forces are still detaining protesters for days or hours without warning.
“I was confident that the regime hadn’t changed when they disappeared my son for more than five months,” Gloria remembered, still moving around some candles. “On August 7 [2025], they took Rosmel from El Helicoide and transferred him and 31 other detainees to another prison: Fuerte Guaicaipuro.”
She paused her task and wiped a tear. Meanwhile, the rest of the family members of political prisoners wrote “freedom” on their shirts. Rosmel was in El Helicoide for five years before his transfer. He and 76 other civilians and military personnel have been imprisoned for a case of a presumed coup called “Operación Gedeón” since 2020.
All of those 76 detainees and Rosmel are now being denied the amnesty that was promised to them. Other political prisoners had been liberated with restrictions — like house arrest or monthly visits to court — and without any reparations.
“It wasn’t until February 12 that I received proof that Rosmel was still alive,” she remembered. “I only had 15 minutes to see him. I nearly cried when I saw his bruises and his yellow skin. He couldn’t tell me about his torture, but it was evident.”
As she spoke, in other prisons like Rodeo 1 and Tocuyito, the families of political prisoners were denouncing constant cases of torture since January 3. Gloria could only see her son that one time.
“The economic pressure is suffocating too,” she added. “Each family has to bring their medicine, their food, their clothes, our transportation… I’m crashing at a friend’s house in the meantime, because all of us that are protesting today have no income, even if we try to search for a job.”
Even though the government spent the last three months launching new legal instruments to expand its oil production and mining, the minimum wage is still less than, 27 cents a month, and is decreasing each day. A food basket costs the equivalent of 645 American dollars, according to the Federación Venezolana de Maestros, an association of multiple unions in the country.
“This stagnation is the same as previous years. I don’t think there is any improvement [with the interim president] right now,” Gloria said before she gathered with other civilians.
The protest was about to begin. A priest called all of them to walk and sing a prayer. The SEBIN blocked some of the perimeter: they didn’t want Gloria and her fellow marchers to be near El Helicoide’s entrance.
They returned to a spot where Gloria had been protesting all those 100 nights, putting up photos of her loved ones and lighting the candles.
At the dawn of day 101 after Rodriguez took the presidency, Gloria cleaned up all the wax and scraps of paper that the protest left behind with a broom to repeat the cycle.
“Now we are not afraid to protest again,” she said.
Many protests have taken place in Caracas since then: on social media, people are expecting the Supreme Court to announce elections — legally, the interim presidency only has 90 days to rule before the Venezuelan people have the right to vote in a new ruler. Separately, on April 30 and May 1, the teachers union protested again to increase the minimum wage and cut taxes.
Delcy Rodríguez increased some bonuses to 240 $ on April 30, but not the minimum wage per se; so teachers and nursery unions are still protesting until the real salary increases.
Even today, on May 3, the Venezuelan opposition of María Corina Machado summoned a new protest for the freedom of all political prisoners.
In the meantime, Delcy Rodríguez continues to change the law in order to facilitate foreign companies investing in Venezuela.
On April 23, Rodríguez outlawed the amnesty after 64 days since it was enacted. The interim president said that at least 8.000 people attended successfully, but Gloria and at least the family members of other 500 political detentees said otherwise.
“We will continue protesting. We will do it every night for the freedom of all Venezuelans and other syndicates will protest every day for a better economy,” Gloria said.
Every night, people gathers at El Helicoide and Rodeo 1 — the two main prisons and torture centers — and chant:
¡Justicia, justicia!
Justicia y libertad
Todos son inocentes, ninguno delincuente.
In English: Justice, justice! Freedom and rights, all of them are innocent; they are not delinquents.
Editor’s Note:
Today, May 3, marks four months since a U.S. military operation removed Venezuela’s leadership from power.
Regimes change. Promises get made. The world moves on. But here at The Counteroffensive, we remain steadfast.
We have reporters across the world documenting what it feels like to live under autocratic rule after the headlines fade.
Don’t let yourself turn away from the real-world implications of authoritarian threats. Subscribe now, or upgrade to full access!
NEWS OF THE DAY:
By Oleksandra Poda
Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.
BALLOON CROSSED BELARUS-UKRAINE BORDER CARRYING WEAPONRY TECH: On May 2, Ukrainian border guards detected a balloon that crossed the Belarus-Ukraine border, carrying a signal repeater, which can be used to aid communications for Russian weapons. Belarus has previously used balloons to violate the airspace of neighboring countries as part of its hybrid warfare.
Belarus is not officially at war with Ukraine, but has been actively aiding Russia since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.
UKRAINE INTRODUCES MANDATORY ROTATION OF TROOPS: General Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has signed an order mandating the rotation of frontline troops. Now, a frontline soldier can remain in a position for no longer than 2 months, after which commanders must carry out a rotation within 1 month.
The decision was made following a scandal in which the command of the 14th Brigade failed to provide soldiers with sufficient food. Some Ukrainian soldiers have been in their positions for 502 days, according to Military Ombudsman Reshetilova.
UKRAINE STRUCK TWO RUSSIAN ‘SHADOW FLEET’ TANKERS: On May 3, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in coordination with the Security Service of Ukraine, struck two tankers belonging to Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ near the entrance to the port of Novorossiysk. On the same day, Ukrainian drones attacked the Baltic port of Primorsk, Russia’s largest oil export terminal on the Baltic Sea, with a capacity of 1 million barrels per day.
At the same time, the U.S. continues to ease sanctions on Russian oil and turns a blind eye to Russia’s circumvention of sanctions via its ‘shadow fleet’. The Trump administration provided Ukraine with intelligence for this attack.
PERU INVESTIGATES RUSSIAN HUMAN TRAFFICKING MILITARY RECRUITMENT SCHEME: The Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation after Peruvians came forward claiming they had been tricked into fighting for Russia. Peruvian citizens, mostly former police officers and military personnel, claimed they were recruited on social media with offers of security guard jobs in Russia paying $2,000-3,000. Upon arrival in Russia, their passports were confiscated, and they were forcibly sent to the frontlines. At least 13 Peruvians have been killed while fighting in the war in Ukraine since 2022, and about 600 citizens may have traveled to Russia since October 2025. Families protested outside the Foreign Ministry building in Lima, demanding repatriation.
Russia has been recruiting foreigners for its army from at least 135 countries. As of March 30, Ukraine had identified 27,407 foreign nationals fighting on Russia’s side.
PARROT OF WAR:
Oleksandra met this adorable parrot Addie in a coffee shop on her way to see her therapist. She was stunned by this encounter and was late for her appointment.
Stay safe out there!
Best,
Joshua
 | A guest post by
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Thank you for this important story. News becomes “old” so quickly these days. Reporters get assigned to stories and move on. Follow-up, such as this, is vital.