Venezuela has had enough of orders from Washington, says interim leader Rodríguez

Venezuela has had enough of US orders, the country’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez told oil workers on Sunday.

The South American nation has been under pressure to open its petroleum sector to US investment since Washington captured former leader Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.

"It is important that we open spaces for democratic dissent, but that it be politics, with a capital P and with a V for Venezuela," Rodríguez said during the event vent with workers in Anzoátegui.

"Enough of Washington's orders to politicians in Venezuela. May Venezuelan politics be the one to resolve our differences and our internal conflicts. Enough of foreign powers, this Republic has paid a very high price for having to face the consequences of fascism and extremism in our country."

Political prisoners

Meanwhile, the families of hundreds of people still being held in Venezuelan prisons are calling for their release and for greater transparency in the process.

After Maduro’s capture, the Venezuelan government offered to release “a significant number” of prisoners that rights groups say are being detained for their political views.

Rodríguez said on Friday that “626 people have been released from prison” and accused certain sectors of “manipulating the figures through lies.”

She said she would ask the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to verify the lists of those released from prison, with the aim of putting an end to the discrepancies in the numbers.