Venezuela's opposition negotiator Dinorah Figuera says the interim government is close to announcing a new round of releases of political prisoners, after talks with the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez.

Figuera, who heads the opposition delegation in the dialogue with the government and is president of the National Assembly elected in 2015, spoke in an interview with journalist David Placer from Madrid, reported on 8 November. She said she had met Rodriguez, the government's chief negotiator in the talks, two days earlier.

Rodriguez told her the government was close to telling the country about further releases, Figuera said. "We held a meeting not long ago, two days, with Jorge Rodriguez and he said that we are on the verge of an announcement, of telling the country, the release of new political prisoners," she said.

All prisoners must be freed, Figuera says

Figuera said the opposition's demand is that every political prisoner should be freed as soon as possible. "We want to consolidate that all political prisoners are released," she said, adding that the opposition delegation had pressed the point persistently at the negotiating table.

She also raised the cases of military personnel detained for political reasons. Figuera said she had put their release directly to interim President Delcy Rodriguez, and that some of the detained officers had asked to leave Venezuela for countries including Germany and Spain. She said she had spoken with the German ambassador about diplomatic options for their release and departure.

Figuera said the releases were a personal moral commitment for her, telling Placer that the godfather of her daughter, activist Fernando Alban, died in custody in 2018 in circumstances that have never been clarified.

322 prisoners still counted

The human rights group Foro Penal counts 322 political prisoners in Venezuela as of 26 October, including 182 civilians and 140 military personnel. That figure stands despite an amnesty law approved in February, which Figuera said had benefited almost 9,000 people, while the remaining cases were expressly excluded from it.

The dialogue between the government and the opposition began in August, with a third round of talks held in Caracas on 14 and 15 October. The releases so far have been one of the opposition's long-standing demands, and Washington has also pressed Caracas to keep freeing detainees. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised the issue on 2 November in a meeting in Washington with Venezuela's new foreign minister, Oliver Blanco, urging the continued release of those still held.

The Venezuelan government denies that it holds people for political reasons, saying those detained committed crimes, a position rejected by human rights groups and opposition parties. For the families of those still in custody, Figuera said she planned to meet relatives in Caracas to keep up the demand for their release while the promised announcement is awaited.