Washington DC - President Donald Trump said he had "cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks" on Venezuela after the country's interim government a released numerous alleged political prisoners.

The releases, which started Thursday, are the first since the US overthrew Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a violent coup.

Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, has since taken over with the backing of Trump, who says he is content to let her govern as long as she follows his administration's diktats.

In a social media post Friday, Trump said the move was a sign of "Seeking Peace" and called it "a very important and smart gesture."

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He added that the United States and Venezuela were "working well together."

Former Venezuelan opposition candidate Enrique Marquez – who opposed Nicolas Maduro in the contested 2024 presidential election – was among those released Thursday.

"It's all over now," Marquez said in a video taken by a local journalist of him and his wife, accompanied by another released opposition member Biagio Pilieri.

The White House credited Trump with securing the prisoners' freedom.

"This is one example of how the president is using maximum leverage to do right by the American and Venezuelan people," Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP.

Delcy Rodriguez's brother, parliament speaker Jorge Rodriguez, said "a large number of Venezuelan and foreign nationals" were being immediately freed for the sake of "peaceful coexistence."

He did not say which prisoners would be released, nor how many or from where.

Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado hailed the announcement, saying in an audio message on social media: "Injustice will not last forever and... truth, although it be wounded, ends up finding its way."

Trump told Fox he plans to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner "next week." He has so far expressed no interest in supporting her bid for power or facilitating elections for the foreseeable future, instead insisting that the US would simply "run" Venezuela.