Edmundo González says son-in-law Rafael Tudares freed after more than a year in detention

Edmundo González, widely considered the legitimate winner of Venezuela’s disputed 2024 presidential election, said on Thursday that his son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, had been released after more than a year in Venezuelan detention. González’s daughter, Mariana González de Tudares, confirmed the release on X, writing: "After 380 days of an unjust arbitrary detention and having endured, for more than a year, an inhuman situation of enforced disappearance, my husband Rafael Tudares Bracho has returned home." Mr.

González said the move ended "a year marked by uncertainty, silence, and anguish" but stressed it underscored the need to free all remaining political prisoners. The family and rights groups have described Tudares’s case as part of a post‑election government crackdown. The family said he was seized by hooded men while walking his children to school, held incommunicado for months and sentenced in a closed hearing to 30 years on conspiracy and other charges the family says were related to his ties to González.

A United Nations report said he was held incommunicado for more than eight months, and Foro Penal, a human rights group, says 151 of almost 900 political prisoners have been let go amid recent limited releases by the interim government led by Delcy Rodríguez since U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro this month.

Key Topics

Politics, Edmundo González, Rafael Tudares, Mariana González, Delcy Rodríguez, Nicolás Maduro