Venezuela opposition leader’s son-in-law released from prison

Rafael Tudares Bracho, the son-in-law of Venezuelan opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez, has been released from prison after being held incommunicado for more than a year.

The release comes just two months after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison and occurs amid a recent wave of political prisoner releases announced by the acting government of Venezuela after former president Nicolas Maduro was captured by US forces to face drug-trafficking charges.

“After 380 days of unjust and arbitrary detention — having endured more than a year of the inhumane reality of enforced disappearance — my husband Rafael Tudares Bracho returned home this morning,” his wife Mariana Gonzalez said on X. “It has been a stoic and profoundly difficult struggle.”

Tudares Bracho was arrested just days before Maduro’s inauguration for a third term.

His wife denounced the legal proceedings as a sham, noting that his trial took place in a single 12-hour session on November 28, resulting in convictions for “conspiracy, terrorism, and criminal association”.

It was not until January 16 that Mariana Gonzalez was granted her first 25-minute visit with her husband since his arrest.

Families of Venezuelan prisoners have been holding vigils outside prisons and demanding the release of nearly 800 imprisoned critics, journalists and members of the opposition still detained in the South American nation.

As of Tuesday, Venezuela’s leading prisoner rights organisation Foro Penal had verified the release of 145 people it considers “political prisoners”. Around 775 more remain in detention, according to the organisation’s leader, Alfredo Romero.