Richard Branson: What earthquakes and prisons show about Venezuela under Trump
Getting political prisoners freed would demonstrate that Trump's end goals are freedom and democracy.
Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Group.
It’s hard to stomach the footage from Venezuela, where untold thousands remain missing more than three weeks after devastating earthquakes hit the country’s northern coast, causing widespread destruction and acute suffering for millions who have lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods.
In January, following the U.S. military intervention to remove authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump boasted that the United States was effectively “in charge” of Venezuela and would oversee the country’s political and economic transition. Such words from the leader of the free world carry great weight and responsibility in any setting. Now, in the wake of a disaster of the earthquakes’ magnitude, they must be followed by urgent and decisive action.
Such action clearly has not occurred up to now. Despite receiving an estimated $8 billion in revenue from Venezuelan oil exports, the U.S. has provided only about $386 million in vital earthquake relief and recovery funds. As it becomes clear that Venezuela’s dysfunctional government, lacking both capacity and legitimacy, is unable to oversee and manage the recovery, the U.S. must step up.
This is not just a technical and economic challenge, but also a moral one. Nonprofit human rights group Foro Penal (Penal Forum) reported this week that 371 prisoners remained behind bars — opposition leaders, dissidents, journalists, military officers, human rights defenders and many others who have ended up in the government’s crosshairs.
Their continued detention, often on trumped-up charges and without access to lawyers, is a true injustice with tragic consequences, not least for the families that have endured years of uncertainty, fear and separation. Just last week, families reported that prisoners at the notorious El Rodeo prison outside Caracas had been beaten and forced back inside quake-damaged cells.
This awful status quo undermines claims that Maduro’s interim successor, Delcy Rodríguez, is committed to any form of democratic transition. And it’s an embarrassment to the U.S. government: Trump has invested significant political capital to portray Maduro’s removal from office as a foreign-policy success. But so far, the intervention has not produced visible progress for Venezuela’s people. Nothing symbolizes that more clearly than hundreds of political prisoners still languishing in jail.
As the U.S. now controls Venezuela’s future, it must use its leverage to push firmly and publicly for the unconditional release of every one of those political prisoners. That would be a tangible demonstration that the transition is moving in the right direction and that a free, democratic and prosperous Venezuela is still Trump’s end goal.
For those holding power inside Venezuela today, history offers another clear lesson. Governments change. Leaders once believed to be untouchable can find themselves having to answer difficult questions and face the consequences. Accountability for the failures of the past few decades is inevitable — the beginning unrest over the government’s fumbled response to the earthquakes will only accelerate that fate. Choosing compassion over repression now is not only the right thing to do; it is often the wisest.
The issue of political prisoners was one of the main points raised at a hearing on Venezuela by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Wednesday. Members of Congress heard from representatives of nongovernmental organizations working on the ground in Venezuela who said release of the prisoners should not be a petition, but a demand.
The insufficiency of disaster relief is not the only way the U.S. is mishandling the responsibility it has assumed. Freedom, justice and democracy should be the foundations on which Venezuela recovers and rebuilds. As long as hundreds of innocent people remain behind bars, that vision will remain elusive. The U.S. government should act to free them now.
NewsletterDaily
Today’s Headlines
The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors, delivered every morning.