STORY: Venezuela's government has given 131 detained prisoners "alternative liberty restriction measures", it said in a statement on Friday (August 14), as human rights groups hailed releases of some people they say were being held unjustly or for political reasons.

The people had been detained for their alleged or confirmed participation in crimes, the government said in a statement shared by communications minister Miguel Perez Pirela on X, and were given the alternative measures, which the statement did not detail, as part of the government's Peace and Democratic Coexistence program.

"Not everyone has been released, and they all deserve full freedom; let’s continue to demand this tirelessly until every citizen is reunited with their family," Dinorah Figuera, who is leading an opposition delegation at U.S.-backed negotiations with Venezuela's interim government, wrote on X following Pirela's announcement.

Rights groups including Foro Penal, which provides legal representation for prisoners in Venezuela, as well as the country's Vente Venezuela opposition movement, celebrated a number of the releases via posts on their own social media. Foro Penal said earlier on Friday there are 391 political prisoners in the country, but added in a separate post that it had confirmed 29 releases as of 4:30pm local time.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

SHOWS: GUATIRE, MIRANDA, VENEZUELA (AUGUST 14, 2026) (REUTERS - Access all)

1. VARIOUS OF GROUP OF VENEZUELANS RELEASED FROM EL RODEO PRISON SHOUTING (Spanish): "FREEDOM"

2. VARIOUS OF RELEASED VENEZUELAN, MERWIN SIMONS VASQUEZ, HUGGING HIS FAMILY

3. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RELEASED VENEZUELAN, MERWIN SIMONS VASQUEZ, SAYING:

"Here we are, and praying and hoping to God that in that place (referring to El Rodeo prison) all the comrades who are still inside get out, because there are truly many people who really do not know what they did to be in that place."

4. VARIOUS OF RELEASED PRISONER, CRISTIAN QUINTERO, AND HIS FAMILY

5. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RELEASED VENEZUELAN, CRISTIAN QUINTERO, SAYING:

"We were kidnapped, we spent four months without receiving visits, without getting a response from our relatives, more relatives were detained. I arrived here to a punishment cell here at El Rodeo 1, where I spent approximately one month sleeping, naked, handcuffed, sleeping on a cement bed, in a cell of approximately 2 by 3 metres."

6. VARIOUS OF RELEASED VENEZUELAN LEOMAR GUERRA WITH HIS CHILDREN AND HIS WIFE

7. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RELEASED VENEZUELAN, LEOMAR GUERRA, SAYING:

"After January 3, everything changed for us, after five months missing, after three months naked and handcuffed in a cell, I was able to see my family, after nights of crying, after begging the director of this prison, to please allow me a visit, a call, I even lied to them saying that my mother was in the final stage, that she was dying, that I needed to see her, however they did not care. After the negotiation process began, two days after the first phase ended, concrete acts are finally seen of a true dialogue and of a true will to change Venezuela and change for Venezuela."

8. GUERRA GREETING RELATIVES OF OTHER PRISONERS

9. VARIOUS OF RELEASED PRISONER, FELIX JIMENEZ, HUGGING RELATIVES AFTER LEAVING EL RODEO PRISON