Machado demands release of 863 political prisoners

Following the detention of Nicolás Maduro by US forces, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, through her Vente Venezuela movement, called for the immediate release of all political prisoners.

The movement is instructing those who, in its view, wrongly detain civilian and military opponents of the regime to do so without delay.

According to a local human rights group, there are up to 863 political prisoners in Venezuela.

The tense situation has also had an impact on the work of the media, with the authorities detaining 14 journalists, most of them from international newsrooms, on Monday. All were later released, but one foreign reporter was deported.

(reuters, mja)