<figure id="attachment_3215410" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3215410" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3215410 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/82f382b0-maria-corina-machado-21112025.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3215410" class="wp-caption-text">Disregarding María Corina Machado, US President Donald Trump has instead worked with acting president Delcy Rodríguez and other Nicolás Maduro allies. (EPA Images pic)</figcaption></figure>
CARACAS: Washington announced Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado will meet President Donald Trump this week as pressure grew on the interim leadership in Caracas to speed up the release of political prisoners.
Machado has been sidelined by Washington since US forces seized long-term authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro on Jan 3 and the Trump administration announced it would be &#8220;running&#8221; Venezuela.
Disregarding Machado and her understudy Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, Trump has been working instead with acting president Delcy Rodriguez, left in power with other Maduro cronies.
Trump has warned Rodriguez to toe Washington&#8217;s line or face the consequences &#8212; particularly on granting access to the South American country&#8217;s vast oil reserves.
A US administration official told AFP the Republican president will meet Machado at the White House on Thursday.
Venezuela, meanwhile, announced it had freed 116 more people jailed under Maduro &#8212; many for taking part in protests after his disputed 2024 election.
Rights groups questioned the numbers, and family members clamored for speedier releases promised by Caracas under pressure from Washington.
Relatives have been camped out at prisons for days, growing increasingly restless as loved ones have failed to appear.
&#8220;We simply ask that they keep their word,&#8221; said Manuel Mendoza, who had driven six hours to be at the El Rodeo prison, about 30 kilometers from Caracas, for his son&#8217;s Jose Daniel&#8217;s anticipated release.
&#8220;It&#8217;s already been four nights waiting out in the open air, suffering.&#8221;
UN experts and the opposition said only about 50 prisoners have been freed so far out of the 800 to 1,200 that rights groups estimate are being held.
Gonzalez Urrutia &#8212; who ran as the opposition&#8217;s presidential candidate in 2024 after Machado was disqualified by institutions loyal to Maduro &#8212; said &#8220;every hour that passes is a new form of violence against families&#8221; of prisoners.
Machado on Monday urged Pope Leo XIV to &#8220;intercede&#8221; on behalf of prisoners.
&#8220;I asked him to intercede for all Venezuelans who remain kidnapped and disappeared,&#8221; Machado said after an audience with the pontiff at the Vatican.

MatchPoint Times

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