Sawt Falasteen - Young mother seeks five relatives in Venezuela jail

They seized her brother, accused of links to an attempted attack in Caracas last year. They had threatened to kill her unless he surrendered.

Security forces also arrested her mother, teenage sister, aunt and cousin. And they used Gutierrez, pregnant with her second child, to pressure her partner to surrender.

Gutierrez herself was released hours later and her sister after three days.

The remaining five have not been heard from since they were detained in Cumana, a city on the Caribbean coast, in August 2025.

On Thursday the Venezuelan government announced the release of a "large number" of prisoners following the US capture of the country's authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro.

But human rights groups estimate that around 800 people still remain jailed in Venezuela for political reasons.

- Torture in jail -

Gutierrez went to El Rodeo I prison east of Caracas hoping to find her mother and the other relatives still held.

She spent the night outside as she and dozens of others waited for news of their loved ones.

"My mom means everything to me," Gutierrez told AFP.

Waiting near the jail in Guatire, she recounted the torture her brother suffered.

She heard about it from her 16-year-old sister, who spent three days in prison witnessing it, being harassed by guards, and hearing her mother crying in the distance.

"My sister came out of there deeply disturbed by everything she saw them do to my brother," she said.

"He suffers from asthma, and they put a white sheet over his face. He started screaming... and they ignored him."

- Camping out in hope -

Unrest during protests against Maduro's re-election in July 2024 left 28 people dead and 2,400 detained.

Maduro labeled them "terrorists," while the opposition and international powers accused him of rigging his election win.

About 2,000 of those detainees were later released, mostly under conditions requiring regular check-ins and banning them from speaking to the press.

Since Thursday's announcement of prisoner releases, just 21 have been freed, according to unofficial NGO figures.

Gutierrez and her sister have survived thanks to help from their aunts. Her sister cannot work because she is underage, and Lorealbert because she has two babies.

Authorities have not confirmed the whereabouts of their relatives but one aunt managed to trace them to Rodeo I, which holds around 500 detainees.

Gutierrez spent the night under a tree, suffering breast engorgement because she could not nurse her two-month-old baby. She plans to go home on Sunday.

"If it were up to me, I'd stay here until I see my mom," she said. "What I long for most is to give my mom a hug."

K.Hassan--SF-PST