After Venezuela frees 1% of prisoners, families and activists strain to stay hopeful

GUATIRE, Venezuela (AP) - A day after Venezuela 's government pledged to free a "significant number" of prisoners, a local human rights group said only eight people had been released, or less than 1% of the citizens and foreigners the group says are detained for political reasons.

Family members of the detainees - a mix of political opponents of the country's ruling party, activists and journalists - anxiously waited outside prisons on Friday with hopes their loved ones might be released. The government hasn't said who or how many would be granted freedom.

The daughter of a former police officer being held at one of the country's most notorious prisons learned during a scheduled visit with her father on Friday that neither he nor many of the prisoners there were even aware that former President Nicolás Maduro had been arrested last weekend by U.S. military forces to face federal charges of drug-trafficking in New York.

President Donald Trump hailed the Venezuelan government's pledge to release prisoners, in what a top official described as a gesture to "seek peace." And images of former prisoners being reunited with their families were also celebrated by leaders of Venezuela's opposition movement, who remain sidelined in a country now being led by Maduro's former loyalists.

Still, Venezuela has released prisoners before in what observers have called a political negotiation tactic. It remains unclear whether this latest wave of amnesty represents a government in transition under pressure from the United States or merely a symbolic overture to placate Trump, who said he asked for the releases.

Foro Penal, an advocacy group for prisoners based in Caracas, said that by Friday morning it had only documented the release of 8 of the 863 people it says are detained in Venezuela "for political reasons."

Among those were high-profile opposition leaders, activists and journalists - both Venezuelan and foreign citizens.

Former opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzaléz said in a video message on social media that "it deeply gladdens me to see the embrace of those who have already been able to reunite." He told those who continued to wait to stay strong.

Around 60 family members and loved ones gathered outside of the Rodeo prison just outside of Venezuela's capital on Friday and said they weren't leaving until they got more news. Many had waited for an entire day with the hopes that their family members would be freed.

Shakira Ibarreto, 33, was among those to arrive to the prison the night before to await the release of her father Miguel Ibarreto. He is a former police office who has spent years in and out of detention on the accusation that he was planning to overthrow the government, a charge widely leveled at critics and activists upon detention.

Ibarreto entered the prison in the early morning in a scheduled visit with her father, and said she quickly realized that her father knew nothing about the seismic shifts underway in the South American nation.

She explained to him that Maduro has been deposed in an American military operation and taken to New York to face justice, and that a new government of his allies had taken hold, and has released a number of prisoners.

"At first, I was scared to tell him because I wasn't sure what they could do to me. Then I summoned up the bravery," Ibarreto told The Associated Press. "I told him everything, every single thing that was happening in Venezuela right now."

Her father listened to her in shock. He said guards had turned off the state TV usually running in a loop in the prison.

Ibarreto said she watched her father tell other prisoners the news and heard them erupt in applause and screams of excitement. Other visiting family members said that people inside the prison were crying tears of joy.

Still, there was no sign that Ibarreto and other imprisoned opposition and civil society members were going to be released. It still remained unclear under what conditions the opposition members freed on Thursday were released, and if they would be blocked from speaking publicly.

Human rights groups said the release of eight people was not nearly enough.

"Freedom cannot remain in statements: it must materialize in verifiable facts," the Venezuelan organization Justice, Encounter, and Forgiveness posted on X.

Others like Ibarreto were still holding out hope on Friday.

"I'm not sad, I feel emotional. Because I have hope. We didn't feel this hope and this feeling a week ago. Two weeks ago," Ibarreto said. "We've been at this for years."