itstargetnews
In a functioning democracy, a similar public conflict would hardly be recorded.
But in Venezuela, considered one of Latin America’s most authoritarian countries, student leader Miguelangel Suarez’s face-to-face appeal to acting president Delcy Rodriguez quickly drew international attention.
During Rodriguez’s visit to his university, Suarez, accompanied by dozens of other students, approached Venezuela’s new leader and demanded that she release “hundreds of young political prisoners.” In a video of the encounter, Rodriguez appears taken aback at first before engaging in a brief discussion.
A little more than a month after the United States captured then-President Nicolas Maduro, some Venezuelans opposed to the government have grown emboldened to challenge the new authorities.
Others remain cautious and worried that any democratic opening will be only temporary.
After the American operation, Rodriguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, took power, and most of Maduro’s allies kept their positions.
In a sign that the new government may want to implement concrete reforms to protect dissent, the legislature on Thursday unanimously approved an amnesty bill that could grant broad pardons to hundreds of people considered political prisoners by rights groups. Lawmakers are expected to hold a mandatory second vote on the measure on Tuesday.
About 350 political prisoners have already been freed in the month since Maduro’s arrest, according to Foro Penal, an NGO that monitors political prisoners in the country. However, 680 of them are still in prison. The government claimed that more than 800 had been freed since December.
“When my adrenaline dropped a little, I started thinking about what it means to do this in an authoritarian country,” Suarez said of his conversation with Rodriguez. – For about three hours I had a very strange feeling.
Despite those concerns, Suarez said he had not received any threats or indications that he might face retaliation following the incident.
Suarez said he was stopped at a police checkpoint a few days later and was briefly detained by officers before his superior instructed them to let him go by phone.
‘You can feel the change’
The clash between Suarez and Rodriguez has become a test case for the question Venezuelans are whispering: Is the country entering a genuine political opening or just a brief, carefully managed pause in repression?
Like Suarez, some aren’t waiting for permission to test new frontiers.
After the crackdown on protests and dissent after the July 2024 presidential election, “people stopped even talking about politics in the street,” according to Jesus Piñero, a history teacher at a private high school in Caracas.
Many would delete messages and photos on their phones before leaving the house, fearing that anti-government propaganda might be discovered during searches at checkpoints.
In one case that attracted widespread attention, a 65-year-old doctor was sentenced to 30 years in prison after sending a message in a neighboring WhatsApp group that criticized Maduro’s government.
Piñero said he began speaking openly and posting on social media about the US operation, comparing the current moment to the fall of the Venezuelan dictator in 1935.
He has also started talking more about politics in his classes, where he says the children of some of the top government officials attend.
“You can feel the change and I think we are more free today than we were yesterday,” he said.
Red lines of the regime
Now the question is how much and for how long the government will tolerate dissent. Some signs of the government’s red lines have already appeared.
On the same day of the US operation, Rodriguez issued a decree declaring a state of emergency, ordering the “search and immediate arrest” of anyone celebrating Maduro’s capture.
A private TV channel with national reach recently aired footage of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado applauding US actions after meeting with officials in Washington.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, considered a top government official, later criticized the channel on his weekly TV program. For many Venezuelans, being named on his show is seen as a warning that may be followed by a knock on the door from state security.
Some other forms of activism are tolerated — for now.
The US capture of Nicolás Maduro has opened new hope for hundreds of political dissidents lost in Venezuela’s notorious prisons. For The National, CBC’s Evan Dyer talks to Venezuelans now living in Canada who say they want to see the Trump administration do more to free their family and friends.
Hundreds of family members of what rights groups consider to be political prisoners gathered outside the prison, many of them sleeping in tents as they demand the release of their family members.
In one incident outside the facility, opposition youth leader Marysabel Centeno berated a line of police officers for “following orders” and “hurting Venezuelans.” The video of the meeting quickly spread on the Internet. Centeno is seen yelling right in front of the officers as they stare blankly ahead.
“I got a lot of warnings, and there were people telling me that the intelligence services had already put me on a list,” she said. “But to date, thank God, nothing has happened.”
At least three opposition politicians who were hiding inside the country have emerged in the past month and made public statements.
Former opposition MP Delsa Solorzano says she went into hiding shortly after a failed attempt by security forces to detain her in August 2024. She spent 17 months “completely alone” in a safe house and “couldn’t even peek out the window to see the sun”.
She recently appeared at the headquarters of her political party to a standing ovation.
“It is undeniable that a new phase has begun in the country and if someone is a politician, it is because they want to serve their country and it is time,” she said, admitting that she will still face risks.
‘A new political moment’: Rodriguez
Acting President Rodriguez spoke of a “new political moment”. But beyond the amnesty law, there have been few concrete steps to guarantee freedom of expression or protect dissent from future reprisals.
Some of those who have already been released from prisons in the country have also strengthened themselves, speaking openly to the media.
Typically, political prisoners released in Venezuela are given strict conditions – they are prohibited from speaking publicly about their cases, are prohibited from leaving the country, and are required to report to court periodically.
“There was this timidity, this fear, and it slowly disappeared,” said Ramon Centeno, a Venezuelan journalist who spent four years in prison and was released in the days after the US operation.
He said he hoped the coming forward would help build a new “culture of non-violent dialogue” in Venezuela – though he added he remained careful not to discuss the details of his case or what he experienced behind bars.
The new political culture indicates signs of a democratic opening, according to John Magdalen, a political scientist from Caracas. But he warns that without concrete guarantees for the protection of rights and dissent, the momentum could quickly fade.
The son of Dave Sawatzky, a southern Manitoba man who has been imprisoned in Venezuela for more than a decade, says he hopes the current political turmoil in the South American country could result in his release.
A true transition to democracy would entail “political liberalization”, which formally restores civil liberties. The amnesty law could be the first step in that direction, he said.
“Most of the democratic transitions that have taken place in the world have a tendency to reverse, meaning that liberalization starts and then reverses,” he said. “No transition is irreversible, and all we have seen so far are gestures in that direction.”
