The United States has been right to press Venezuela to release the political prisoners still held in its jails. Foro Penal, a Venezuelan prisoners' rights group, counts 322 people still in detention, even after more than 1,000 political prisoners were freed following the seizure of Nicolás Maduro in a military raid on Caracas on 3 January. Those 322 people are the test that matters now, and nobody should treat their release as a favour to be traded for patience.
The record of how these prisoners were detained is damning. Many were arrested after the 2024 presidential election, when the National Electoral Council, which is dominated by government loyalists, declared Maduro the winner even though tallies collected by the opposition and verified by independent media suggested the opposition candidate had won. The Carter Center said the election "could not be considered democratic", and a UN fact-finding mission described a "harsh repression" of people perceived as political opponents. A government that won its office this way has no moral standing to ask Venezuelans to wait for reform.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio's demands on elections are also sound. He said Venezuela's election infrastructure had to be replaced and that a vote must happen quickly, "not in 10 years, not in five years, not in two years". Interim president Delcy Rodríguez has said there will be elections under a "renewed" electoral authority, but she has given no date. A promise without a timetable is not a plan, and the three-phase framework the State Department cites, covering stabilisation, economic recovery and political reconciliation, cannot keep postponing the democratic transition indefinitely.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who returned to Venezuela on 25 October after almost a year in exile, has pushed for elections in 2027. She has moved from a suggested date of 24 July 2027 to a call for a vote within the next year. Her impatience is understandable. Washington should set a concrete date, publish the reforms it expects, and tie continued engagement to measurable releases. The prisoners should go home first, and the timetable should be fixed before the next round of talks ends.