'Hope They Never Forget': Trump as Venezuela Starts Releasing Political Prisoners

Washington DC: US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that Venezuela has begun its process of releasing political prisoners. In a post on Truth Social, he said that the Venezuelan political prisoners got 'lucky' as the US intervened and expedited the process.

"Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners. Thank you! I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done. I HOPE THEY NEVER FORGET! If they do, it will not be good for them," Trump said.

A detailed report by the Wall Street Journal said that the detainees in the "notorious" Venezuelan prison were caught unawares by the news that had made headlines around the world. The Wall Street Journal reported in detail how the detainees began to sing, "Se cayo! He fell," in joy upon knowing that Nicolas Maduro and his wife were shoved into a US helicopter in the early hours of January 3, and he saw the horizon of Caracas fading into the skyline.

The two have been kept in the high-profile New York prison since and are facing trial. Venezuela's National Assembly president, Jorge Rodriguez, on Thursday said that the government would release an "important number" of political prisoners. Many Venezuelans saw the announcement as the harbinger of potential change in the government, the Wall Street Journal reported.

However, only 11 of the country's 800 political prisoners have been released so far, according to the human rights organisation Foro Penal. The nail-biting cliffhanger has kept the prisoners' kin on their toes, with the air crackling with anticipation.

The prisoners are kept in Caracas, and the brunt is borne by the low-income families who have to make arrangements for seeing their dear ones, with trips that cost them dearly, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Cases involving detainees held without formal charges are often snail-paced and ensnared in bureaucracy. Since Thursday, it has also grown more secretive, a shift activists suspect is meant to avoid scenes unfolding in front of the press, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

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