A “large number” of releases were announced by Jorge Rodríguez in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon. He indicated that they had been occurring since the time of his statements. However, relatives of political prisoners spend a little more than 34 hours trying to find out the names of those released, as there is no consolidated list.
Rumors come and go, but the request is the same: immediate and unrestricted freedom for all political prisoners. For the second consecutive day, dozens of families gathered outside various detention centers in the country to demand that the releases promised on Thursday, January 8, be fulfilled. With vigils, they raised their prayers to once and for all overcome the long wait.
A “large number” of releases were announced by Jorge Rodríguez in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon. He indicated that they had been occurring since the time of his statements. However, relatives of political prisoners spend just over 34 hours trying to find out the names of those released, as there is no consolidated list.
Marta Cambero, wife of political scientist Nicmer Evans, returned again to the Sebin Helicoide headquarters this Friday at 11:00 am to deliver packages. He left for a few hours, but at 3:00 pm he returned to the place to participate in a vigil called by the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners.
*Read also: Relatives were waiting for release from prison on the outskirts of El Helicoide
He indicated that the only different news from the place is that “they are waiting for information from the general management of Sebin to reactivate the visits, perhaps the rest of the week or possibly on Monday”; in addition to the release of the Trujillo leader Aracelis Balza.
In El Rodeo I, almost 50 kilometers away from Helicoide, many family members woke up this Friday to attend the visit. The custodians of the place, always hooded, told them that the release tickets had not been received and they did not know the names of any of the possible beneficiaries.
First Lieutenant José Daniel Mendoza Torres has been held in this maximum security detention center, classified as a site of “torture” by human rights organizations, since February 19, 2024.
Mendoza was arrested on August 4, 2023 for an alleged conspiracy that the authorities called “La Viñeta”, where an attempt was allegedly made on the lives of Nicolás Maduro and Minister Vladimir Padrino López. The lieutenant was in forced disappearance until December 25, when he was allowed a 20-minute call. On the 30th he could see it.
During that time, the family accumulated “countless trips” to the Military and General Prosecutor’s Office, civil or military courts, the Ombudsman’s Office and the headquarters of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim), where he was detained until his transfer.
«They told us that he was there one day and not the next. After December 30 (2023), visits were allowed every Saturday until February 19, 2024, when they changed it to Rodeo I. Here I saw it for the first time through a glass, a telephone,” says Daniela Camacho, Mendoza’s wife.
The last time they saw each other, her husband was “well, strong,” although with “a lot of anxiety” about the situation. This Friday he asked about him and they told him “he is not here.” “We are going to wait tomorrow for my visit… The custodian told me that I may be in court.”
This is the second time this situation has happened, but Camacho said that any wait is worth it “just to see him, to tell him if he’s okay, it’s enough and it’s worth the wait.”
Although Daniela was distressed by the situation, she prefers to wait as she has done these years. «Life changes one, we never imagined that something like this would happen. “He loves his military career, he tells us that if there is another government, he will return to his military career.”
At the vigil that was also replicated in El Rodeo, one of the requests was: “Virgen de Las Mercedes, break her chains.” They also prayed, sang praises and the national anthem. They hugged each other. As Hiowanka Ávila, sister of political prisoner Henrybert Rivas, recalled, it is the first time that loved ones who have scheduled visits in this prison on Friday, Saturday and Sunday coincide, in addition to people in forced disappearance who are presumed to be in that place.
One of them is Aurora Superlano, wife of political leader Freddy Superlano. He expressly asked the Rodríguez brothers “to fulfill that commitment assumed with the release of all political prisoners, and that you prosecutors and officials know that you are doing the right thing” with these releases.
In the Zone 7 from Boleíta (Caracas), family members have also gathered since Thursday. That was the case of Evelis Cano, who had more than 24 hours without sleep this Friday afternoon. He was waiting for any type of information or the release of his son Jack Tantak, who has been detained since last November 27.
Tantak, his mother said, was arrested by PNB officials at his car wash business in Charallave at 6:00 pm. They had been waiting for him since 2 in the afternoon, after telling him that there was a problem with the sale of a car, an issue he dealt with occasionally.
«They tricked him by saying that there was a case with a car in the business, he came down from Caracas. More than 20 officials were there… they transferred him to La Quebradita 2, they did not even let him speak, they did not show him an arrest warrant despite being with his lawyer. They threw him to the floor, and told him “the terrorist has arrived, you are detained for a political case,” said Cano.
Since then he has not been able to see him. «They don’t tell us anything, I filed complaints with the Prosecutor’s Office but they haven’t presented it anywhere. “So that’s a kidnapping,” he said.
The prisoners themselves joined the vigil, as their relatives heard them shout “freedom” and sing the national anthem.
From Zone 7 of the PNB, relatives of political prisoners hear the detainees shout freedom slogans and sing the National Anthem from inside the detention center.
Freedom is not a favor, it is an obligation of the regime that imprisoned them. The… pic.twitter.com/IPDhltPj35
— Realidad Helicoide (@RHelicoide) January 10, 2026
Yenny Quiroz was also waiting for any information in Zone 7. A PNB official told a group of relatives on Thursday afternoon that “they were waiting for an alleged list. “That night they changed our version, the same police officer told us that he had not talked about a list.”
This Friday, Quiroz commented, other police officers “told us again that they were waiting for an alleged list, but that the focus was concentrated on the Rodeo and the Helicoide.” In the case of the woman, she is waiting for information or the immediate freedom of her husband, the merchant Humberto Jaimes.
He explained that “they took him from his business, supposedly because a person detained a day earlier on Morán Avenue (Caracas) and was interrogated in La Quebradita mentioned it.” They took Jaimes to that same place. He was there from November 26, the date he was arrested, until December 1, when he was transferred to Zone 7.
Quiroz mentioned that her husband’s transfer included relatives of former deputy Fernando Orozco, who was also detained and is missing.
“Here we have unofficially confirmed that he is there, but we have never been able to see him,” said the woman. Even, he pointed out, “they tell relatives that if we ask, don’t tell us anything because otherwise they will suspend visits to them.”
Jaimes is accused of alleged conspiracy, treason, association and financing of terrorism, but “he has never been presented in court.” He made the corresponding complaints to the Public Ministry, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Palace of Justice. In this place they have told him “that these issues take a long time and it is bureaucratic.”
*Journalism in Venezuela is carried out in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments in place to punish the word, especially the laws “against hate”, “against fascism” and “against the blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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