Trump sets meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader, Caracas under pressure

CARACAS - Washington announced on Jan 12 Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado will meet President Donald Trump this week as pressure grew on the interim leadership in Caracas to speed up the release of political prisoners.

Ms Machado has been sidelined by Washington since US forces seized long-term authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro on Jan 3
and the Trump administration announced it would be “running” Venezuela.

Disregarding Ms Machado and her understudy Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, Mr Trump has been working instead with acting president Delcy Rodriguez, left in power with other Maduro cronies.

Mr Trump has warned Ms Rodriguez to toe Washington’s line
or face the consequences – particularly on granting access to the South American country’s vast oil reserves.

A US administration official told AFP the Republican president will meet Ms Machado at the White House on Jan 15.

Venezuela, meanwhile, announced it had freed 116 more people jailed under Maduro – many for taking part in protests after his disputed 2024 election.

Rights groups questioned the numbers, and family members clamoured for speedier releases promised by Caracas under pressure from Washington.

Relatives have been camped out at prisons for days, growing increasingly restless as loved ones have failed to appear.

“We simply ask that they keep their word,” said Mr Manuel Mendoza, who had driven six hours to be at the El Rodeo prison, about 30km from Caracas, for his son’s Jose Daniel’s anticipated release.

“It’s already been four nights waiting out in the open air, suffering.”

UN experts and the opposition said only about 50 prisoners have been freed so far out of the 800-1,200 that rights groups estimate are being held.

Papal intervention?

Ms Machado on Jan 12 urged Pope Leo XIV to “intercede” on behalf of prisoners.

“I asked him to intercede for all Venezuelans who remain kidnapped and disappeared,” Ms Machado said after an audience with the pontiff at the Vatican.

Mr Gonzalez Urrutia – who ran as the opposition’s presidential candidate in 2024 after Ms Machado was disqualified by institutions loyal to Maduro – said “every hour that passes is a new form of violence against families” of prisoners.

Ms Rodriguez, despite being a staunch Maduro ally, is negotiating on several fronts with Washington, which is looking to take advantage of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

US envoys visited Caracas last week to discuss reopening Washington’s embassy there seven years after diplomatic ties were severed.

On Jan 11, Mr Trump said he was open to a meeting with Ms Rodriguez and that his administration was working “really well” with hers.

He said he hoped the freed prisoners “will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.”

But experts mandated to a UN fact-finding mission said in a statement on Jan 12 that the dozens of people freed so far was “far short of Venezuela’s international human rights obligations.”

Frustration was growing among about 40 relatives still camped out outside El Rodeo prison.

Rights NGO Foro Penal said 15 people had been released from the facility, but family members told AFP they were whisked away through a back exit without seeing the loved ones waiting for them.

The government in Caracas said a review of prisoner files was ongoing.

‘Transition to democracy’

Ms Machado said she had underscored Mr Urrutia’s “legitimacy” in her talks with Pope Leo and sought the pope’s backing for “the prompt advancement of the transition to democracy in Venezuela.”

The opposition and much of the international community consider Mr Urrutia the legitimate victor of Venezuela’s last presidential election.

Ms Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
in 2025 and dedicated it to Mr Trump, who has made no secret of his frustration at being passed over for the award.

In Caracas on Jan 12, Ms Rodriguez made a number of ministerial changes, naming a former Maduro bodyguard as minister of the presidential office – charged with managing her agenda and liaising with state agencies.

She also replaced the head of the presidential guard, who leads the feared counterintelligence unit.

Her government said it was ready to pursue a “new agenda” with the European Union and Britain following talks on Jan 12 with their envoys. AFP