Son-in-law of Venezuelan opposition candidate released after 380 days in detention

Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez waves a Venezuelan flag during a meeting with supporters in Panama City, Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Agustin Herrera)

CARACAS, Venezuela — The son-in-law of Venezuelan opposition figure Edmundo González was released on Thursday after being held incommunicado for more than a year, his wife said.

Rafael Tudares Bracho’s release, two months after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, is part of a trickle of prisoners being released by the interim government, after former President Nicolás Maduro was captured by American forces to face drug-trafficking charges. The Trump administration has praised the releases as a gesture of goodwill to the United States.

“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,” Mariana González, daughter of Edmundo González, 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 Nov. 28, resulting in convictions for “conspiracy, terrorism and criminal association.” It wasn’t until Jan. 16 that Mariana González was granted her first 25-minute visit with her husband since his arrest.

The release of Tudares Bracho comes as families of Venezuelan prisoners hold vigils outside prisons and demand the release of nearly 800 imprisoned critics, journalists and members of the opposition still detained in the South American nation.

Edmundo González, an exiled former diplomat who is widely regarded as the legitimate winner of Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, posted a video on social media hailing his son-in-law’s freedom and calling for the release of the many other Venezuelans that he said remain unjustly detained.

“It would be a mistake to reduce this event to a personal story,” he said. “There are still men and women who remain deprived of their liberty for political reasons, without guarantees, without due process, and in many cases, without truth.”

As of Tuesday, Venezuela’s leading prisoner rights organization, Foro Penal, had verified the release of 145 people it considers to be political prisoners. At least 775 more remain in detention, according to the organization.

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The Associated Press