Rafael Tudares, the son-in-law of Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González, has been released from prison, his wife has said, more than a year after he was detained as part of a crackdown on Maduro government critics and their relatives.
Mariana González said her husband had returned home after 380 days of unjust and arbitrary detention.
Tudares is one of more than 150 detainees who have been released since the US military seized Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, in a nighttime raid and took him to New York to stand trial on drug-trafficking charges.
An NGO lobbying for the release of Venezuelan political prisoners warns that 777 still remain behind bars.
Tension within the country remains high with Maduro's former vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, now in power having been sworn in as the acting president.
Her interim government has received the backing of US President Donald Trump, who has praised Rodríguez for agreeing to turn over up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to the US.
The release of political prisoners had been among the first things the Trump administration had pushed Venezuela's interim government to do.
However, rights groups have denounced the slow pace of the releases and the fact that the number given by officials - 400 - falls far short of what they have been able to confirm.
The NGO Foro Penal says it has so far only been able to verify 151 political prisoners released since 8 January, when the head of Venezuela's National Assembly announced the freed individuals.
Tudares's imprisonment was one of the emblematic cases of repression following Venezuela's 2024 presidential election.
His father-in-law, González, became the main challenger of the incumbent Maduro after the well-known opposition leader María Corina Machado was barred from running.
Fearing the Maduro government would resort to fraud to rig the result, González and Machado mobilized hundreds to act as observers at the polling stations. Nevertheless, the electoral council declared Maduro the winner but never provided detailed voting tallies.
In the run-up to Maduro's inauguration, many opposition leaders and activists were seized to stifle dissent. Tudares was seized while taking his children to see their grandmother and for months his family did not know his whereabouts.
Mariana González took to social media to thank supporters for their fight for Tudares's release but reminded that many families are still waiting for their loved ones who have been arbitrarily detained.
