Pressure mounts on Caracas

WASHINGTON announced this week 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 January 3 and the Trump administration announced it would be “running” 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 allies.

Trump has warned Rodriguez to toe Washington's line or face the consequences — particularly on granting access to the South American country’s vast oil reserves.

A US administration official said the Republican president will meet Machado at the White House tomorrow.

Venezuela, meanwhile, announced it had freed 116 more people jailed under Maduro - many for taking part in protests after his disputed 2024 election.

Rights groups questioned the numbers, and family members clamoured 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.