Machado seeks Pope Leo's support for Venezuela's transition during Vatican meeting

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado was granted a private audience with Pope Leo XIV on Monday at the Vatican.

Machado told reporters that she asked Leo to intercede for the release of hundreds of political prisoners still being held in the South American country.

Leo had said he was following the developments in Venezuela with "deep concern," and urged the protection of human and civil rights in the Latin American country.

In Venezuela, families of those detained or disappeared were still waiting outside the prison where their loved ones are being held.

By Monday afternoon, just 49 of Venezuela’s more than 800 political prisoners had been released, despite promises by the government to release “a significant number.”

Venezuela’s opposition has long hoped to replace President Nicolás Maduro with one of their own and restore democracy to the country. But after US forces captured Maduro and took him to New York to face charges of drug trafficking, President Trump allowed his deputy Delcy Rodríguez to assume control.