Sawt Falasteen - Trump sets meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader, Caracas under pressure

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 cronies.

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 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 -- 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.

"We simply ask that they keep their word," said Manuel Mendoza, who had driven six hours to be at the El Rodeo prison, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Caracas, for his son's Jose Daniel's anticipated release.

"It's already been four nights waiting out in the open air, suffering."

UN experts and the opposition said only about 50 prisoners have been freed so far out of the 800-1,200 that rights groups estimate are being held.

- Papal intervention? -

Machado on Monday urged Pope Leo XIV to "intercede" on behalf of prisoners.

"I asked him to intercede for all Venezuelans who remain kidnapped and disappeared," Machado said after an audience with the pontiff at the Vatican.

Gonzalez Urrutia -- who ran as the opposition's presidential candidate in 2024 after Machado was disqualified by institutions loyal to Maduro -- said "every hour that passes is a new form of violence against families" of prisoners.

Rodriguez, despite being a staunch Maduro ally, is negotiating on several fronts with Washington, which is looking to take advantage of Venezuela's vast oil reserves.

US envoys visited Caracas last week to discuss reopening Washington's embassy there seven years after diplomatic ties were severed.

On Sunday, Trump said he was open to a meeting with Rodriguez and that his administration was working "really well" with hers.

He said he hoped the freed prisoners "will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done."

But experts mandated to a UN fact-finding mission said in a statement Monday that the dozens of people freed so far was "far short of Venezuela's international human rights obligations."

Frustration was growing among about 40 relatives still camped out outside El Rodeo prison.

Rights NGO Foro Penal said 15 people had been released from the facility, but family members told AFP they were whisked away through a back exit without seeing the loved ones waiting for them.

The government in Caracas said a review of prisoner files was ongoing.

- 'Transition to democracy' -

Machado said she had underscored Urrutia's "legitimacy" in her talks with Leo and sought the pope's backing for "the prompt advancement of the transition to democracy in Venezuela."

The opposition and much of the international community consider Urrutia the legitimate victor of Venezuela's last presidential election.

Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year and dedicated it to Trump, who has made no secret of his frustration at being passed over for the award.

In Caracas Monday, Rodriguez made a number of ministerial changes, naming a former Maduro bodyguard as minister of the presidential office -- charged with managing her agenda and liaising with state agencies.

She also replaced the head of the presidential guard, who leads the feared counterintelligence unit.

F.AbuZaid--SF-PST