Security & Strategic Review - August 2025

The authoritarian government of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro very briefly allowed hopes to flicker that its crackdown on the opposition might be easing after a particularly fierce period of repression since the disputed July 2024 presidential election. The government agreed to release 80 political prisoners on 18 July as part of an exchange which saw 252 detained Venezuelans returned from El Salvador, and ten US citizens released from Venezuela. Days later, however, another wave of arrests showed that it was back to business as usual for the Maduro administration.