A group of women — mothers, wives, and daughters of men held at Zona 7, the Policía Nacional Bolivariana command in Boleíta, Caracas — entered their fifth consecutive day without food on Wednesday, demanding the release of political prisoners they say have been held in defiance of promises made by the government itself.
The hunger strike began at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 15. By Wednesday, the women had surpassed 120 hours without eating, according to El Nacional, citing the Comité por la Libertad de los Presos Políticos (Clipp). Medical personnel have been present at the protest site. Several of the women have already suffered health complications, Clipp reported — making the demonstration an acute medical emergency as much as a political act.
Inside Zona 7, the detained men themselves have been on hunger strike since February 13 — two days before their families joined them in protest from the street outside. Family visits to the facility have been suspended entirely, cutting off the only direct communication channel between the women camped outside and the men whose freedom they are demanding.
The protesters' core demand is unambiguous: the immediate and unconditional release of all political detainees held at the facility. They hold the government to a promise made by National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on January 8, 2026, which implied imminent movement on prisoner releases. No releases have materialised in the six weeks since.
On Wednesday, a representative from the Public Ministry visited the protest site. According to Clipp, the official stated he had no information on any planned releases and declined to confirm or address the conditions of the prisoners held inside. The exchange illustrated what human rights observers have documented repeatedly: formal state representatives appearing to engage while providing nothing of substance.
The scene in Boleíta is not an isolated incident but a reflection of the scale of Venezuela's political detention crisis. Human rights organisations including Foro Penal have documented hundreds of political prisoners currently held across the country — a figure that swelled sharply following the disputed July 2024 presidential election, in which Nicolás Maduro claimed re-election amid widespread allegations of fraud. Opposition figures, civil society activists, and ordinary citizens who participated in post-election protests were detained in mass arrests that drew international condemnation from governments across the hemisphere and from the United Nations.
Five days without food is not a political statement that can be easily abstracted into diplomatic language. It is a physiological crisis being endured by women who have no other means of reaching a government that has systematically closed every avenue of accountability — the courts, the legislature, the press, the electoral system. They stand outside a concrete building where their sons and husbands are held, denied visits, denied information, denied resolution.
In Venezuela, as across nations experiencing collapse, oil wealth that once seemed a blessing became a curse — and ordinary people pay the price. These women, camped on the pavement outside a detention facility in Caracas, are among the most direct expression of what that cost looks like in human terms: not statistics or sanctions regimes or diplomatic communiques, but bodies demanding that the state acknowledge the people it holds.
This correspondent operates remotely from Panama City. Venezuelan sources are protected and cannot be named. Reporting is ongoing; this outlet is seeking comment from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and PROVEA on the situation at Zona 7.
