The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has held an event with more than a hundred family members of political prisoners, activists from human rights organizations, and victims of repression, within her first public agenda after returning to Venezuela after spending ten months outside the country.
In this meeting, marked by numerous testimonies, the founder of Vente Venezuela reiterated her commitment "to the justice and freedom of all Venezuelans," demanding the immediate release of those who are imprisoned for political reasons, as the Human Rights Committee of her organization has pointed out on social media.
The organization emphasized that "behind every political prisoner there is a family that resists, a mother who waits, children who miss them, and loved ones who refuse to lose hope. To each of those families, we say: you are not alone. Your pain commits us, and your struggle is also ours."
Machado insisted that the country will not be fully free as long as there is a single political prisoner and warned that they will continue the pressure until everyone can regain their daily lives and there is a definitive reunion in Venezuelan homes, considering the release of the detainees as a non-negotiable demand.
The meeting with the victims' associations comes just a few days after the main figure of the opposition confirmed her return to Venezuela, an announcement that triggered massive caravans and expressions of citizen support in different regions of the country.
Machado's return has shaped a new political moment, in which the dialogue promoted by the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, stands out, who has downplayed the return of the opposition leader and has denied that there is political persecution, while the dissent and various social groups prioritize the situation of conscience prisoners and democratic guarantees in the context of the transition.