Cardinal Baltazar Porras recovers Venezuelan passport after December confiscation amid Venezuela’s national reconciliation process.
Newsroom (02/02/2026 Gaudium Press ) Cardinal Baltazar Porras, Archbishop Emeritus of Caracas, has recovered his Venezuelan passport nearly two months after it was seized by Chavista authorities in December. The cardinal made the announcement on January 30 through a post on Instagram, where he appeared smiling and holding the document. “As a Venezuelan citizen, I now have my passport,” he wrote, signaling what many observers see as a symbolic step in Venezuela’s unfolding political transition.
The return of the prelate’s passport comes amid what interim authorities are calling a “national reconciliation” process, following the dramatic arrest of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores on January 3. The initiative, led by acting authorities under Delcy Rodríguez and reportedly backed by the United States, seeks to restore civil rights and political freedoms long suppressed under Chavismo.
According to reports, this campaign has already yielded significant results. The independent organization Foro Penal has documented the release of more than 300 political prisoners. Meanwhile, the interim government has reportedly placed a general amnesty law on the National Assembly’s agenda—legislation that would benefit individuals detained for reasons of conscience since 1999, when Hugo Chávez first came to power. Officials engaged in the reconciliation process describe that era as one defined by “political violence” and systemic repression.
On the same day Cardinal Porras recovered his passport, Rodríguez announced another notable decision: the closure of El Helicoide, the notorious Caracas detention and torture center historically used by Chavista security forces. Rodríguez declared that the site would be converted “into a social, sports, cultural and commercial center for the police family and for the surrounding communities,” marking what she called a new chapter in Venezuela’s institutional renewal.
The December incident involving Cardinal Porras had drawn international attention. On December 10, 2025, Venezuelan immigration police at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía confiscated and canceled his Venezuelan passport as he prepared to travel to Bogotá. Eyewitnesses recounted that the 79-year-old cardinal was “subjected to humiliating treatment,” including a personal search and the inspection of his belongings by drug-sniffing dogs. He was also denied permission to travel using his Vatican diplomatic passport.
In the months preceding the confiscation, Porras had reportedly faced repeated hostility from leading Chavista figures, including Nicolás Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, who had singled him out in public statements and media broadcasts. Many within the Venezuelan Church and human rights community saw these acts as attempts to intimidate one of the nation’s most respected moral and religious voices.
Now, with the return of his passport and a national reconciliation movement underway, Cardinal Porras’s case has become emblematic of Venezuela’s complex journey from authoritarian repression toward an uncertain democratic renewal. For many citizens, his quiet but resolute act of reclaiming his status as a Venezuelan traveler stands as a reminder that even small restitutions can carry great symbolic weight in a country seeking to heal its deep political wounds.
- Raju Hasmukh with files form Infocatholica
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