Reported by BBC World
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Oliver Blanco and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks on Monday
The US has urged Venezuela to release the remaining political prisoners being held in the South American country.
More than 1,000 political prisoners have been freed since US forces seized Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a military raid on Caracas on 3 January and took him to New York, where he faces trial on drug-trafficking and torture charges.
More from the original report
But Venezuelan prisoners' rights group Foro Penal says 322 people remain in detention.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met his Venezuelan counterpart, Oliver Blanco, on Monday where he called for their release and discussed reforms aimed at laying the groundwork for free, fair, and credible elections, the US state department said.
The release of political prisoners has long been a demand made by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025, returned to Venezuela on 25 October after living in exile for almost a year. One of her first meetings was with relatives of political detainees.
Watch: Crowds welcome Venezuela's María Corina Machado after months in exile
Many of those in detention were arrested in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) - which is dominated by government loyalists - declared the incumbent, Nicolás Maduro, the winner of the election even though copies of the voting tallies collected by the opposition and verified by independent media suggested that the opposition candidate had won.
The Carter Center, which had sent independent observers to Venezuela, also said that the election "could not be considered democratic".
A UN fact-finding mission found , external that in the months that followed, the Venezuelan government orchestrated "a harsh repression against persons perceived as political opponents or simply because they express dissent or critical views against the authorities".
After US forces seized Maduro, his loyal vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, was sworn in as interim president.
While Rodríguez has the backing of the Trump administration, opposition parties within Venezuela have been expressing impatience with the slow pace of reforms.
In Monday's…