Political Prisoners and Hostage Diplomacy

Venezuelan authorities have released Rosa Carolina Chirino Zambrano, the Venezuelan wife of Peruvian‑American security worker Renzo Humanchumo Castillo, after more than a year in prison on espionage charges tied to an alleged plot to kill then‑President Nicolás Maduro. Castillo, who lives in Southern California, told Fox News Digital he was arrested with his wife, her friend and their taxi driver near the Colombia border in December 2024, accused of being a CIA‑sent 'professional hitman' targeting Maduro and powerful security chief Diosdado Cabello, and tortured at the notorious El Rodeo prison before being freed in a July 2025 prisoner swap. Zambrano, her friend and the driver remained jailed until their release this week, which Castillo said was his first contact with his wife since their arrest; he now wants to secure a way for her to join him in the United States. The case illustrates how Venezuela’s intelligence services have treated contact with U.S. residents and private security work as proof of terrorism, even as the Trump administration has since captured Maduro in a military raid and is reshaping relations with Caracas. It also underscores the lingering human cost of earlier arrests and the opaque criteria by which Venezuelan political detainees are freed as Washington deepens its involvement in the country’s security and oil sectors.