Venezuela frees opposition leader’s son-in-law as Trump backs interim rule
The Venezuelan government freed the son-in-law of opposition leader Edmundo González on Thursday, marking one of the highest-profile releases yet in a slow and contested process Washington says is central to resolving the country’s long-running political crisis.
Rafael Tudares, who had been jailed for more than a year on terrorism charges widely denounced as politically motivated, returned home early Thursday morning, according to his wife, Mariana González. His release brings to 143 the number of political prisoners freed since the government announced a U.S.-backed plan earlier this month, human-rights groups say.
“After 380 days of an unjust arbitrary detention and having endured, for more than a year, an inhumane situation of enforced disappearance, my husband Rafael Tudares Bracho returned home early this morning,” González wrote on social media. “It has been a stoic and very hard struggle for more than one year.”
The release comes as Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, prepares for a high-stakes visit to Washington, where she is expected to meet President Donald Trump at the White House in the coming weeks, according to a U.S. official. If confirmed, the trip would mark the most significant diplomatic engagement between the two countries in years.
Rodríguez, a longtime Chavista power broker and former vice president under Nicolás Maduro, was sworn in as interim president by the government-controlled National Assembly after U.S. forces captured Maduro in a pre-dawn raid in Caracas on Jan. 3. Maduro and his wife were transferred to New York, where they face U.S. charges related to narco-terrorism.
Tudares is married to González’s daughter, Mariana. González, a former diplomat, ran in the July 28, 2024, presidential election after opposition leader María Corina Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was barred from holding office. Venezuelan authorities declared Maduro the winner in a vote widely criticized by international observers. González later went into exile in Spain, while his daughter and her family remained in Venezuela.
In January 2025, Tudares was arrested by hooded men while taking his two children to school, according to family members. He was later sentenced to the maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, a move González described at the time as retaliation by Maduro’s government.
Despite Thursday’s release, human rights groups say the overall process remains painfully slow. The Human Rights group Foro Penal counted 777 political prisoners still jailed as of Jan. 19, even after the 143 releases announced since Jan. 8. Dozens of relatives continue to camp outside prisons across the country, hoping their loved ones will be next.
Several prominent opposition figures remain behind bars, including Juan Pablo Guanipa, a key ally of Machado accused by authorities of plotting against upcoming regional and parliamentary elections. Also detained are Freddy Superlano, arrested during protests following Maduro’s disputed reelection, and Javier Tarazona, a human-rights activist jailed since 2021 on charges of terrorism, treason and incitement to hatred.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has warned that Venezuela continues to operate “clandestine detention centers,” raising doubts about official claims of reform.
Still, Trump has pointed to the prisoner releases as evidence that Rodríguez’s interim government is complying with U.S. demands. Speaking Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump said Venezuela is poised to earn more from oil in the next six months than it has over the past two decades, following a dramatic shift in U.S. policy after Maduro’s capture.
“The leadership is good and smart,” Trump said, referring to Rodríguez’s government. He has said Venezuela’s new authorities are operating under U.S. supervision and have agreed to grant access to the oil sector, including shipping millions of barrels of crude to the United States for sale.
“I was against Venezuela, but now I love Venezuela,” Trump said earlier this week, adding that his administration has been “working very well” with Rodríguez’s team.
