Political tensions emerge amid celebrations in honor of Venezuela’s 2 new saints

Underlying political tensions have surfaced among Venezuelans in Rome celebrating the recent canonization of the country’s first two saints, José Gregorio Hernández and Mother Carmen Rendiles Martínez.

A Venezuelan government delegation led by Carmen Meléndez, mayor of Caracas, and hundreds of pilgrims from the Latin American nation were among the 70,000 people who attended the Oct. 19 canonization ceremony presided over by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square.

However, in the days leading up to Venezuelans converging at the Vatican to celebrate their country’s new saints, reports have also emerged of evident discord between government officials and citizens over the authoritarian regime of President Nicolás Maduro.

Over the weekend, activists linked to the opposition political movement Vente Venezuela, led by María Corina Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, shared posts on Instagram highlighting their cause to free hundreds of men and women political prisoners.

Activists carried signs with photos of men and women detained by Maduro’s government with the slogan “Free all political prisoners” at an Oct. 18 protest in Piazza Venezia, a public square near the Vatican, and at the Oct. 19 canonization ceremony held in St. Peter’s Square.

The political agenda of the Venezuelan government in Rome was also questioned by the media in the days leading up to the canonizations of the country’s first saints, with critics suggesting that its presence in the Vatican is an attempt to project a positive image of national pride and unity under the Maduro regime.

Last week, an altercation occurred at the Vatican between Venezuelan journalist Edgar Beltrán and Venezuelan businessman Ricardo Cisneros, a member of the government delegation present at the canonization, during an event held at the Lateran University in Rome to honor the two new saints.

During the October 17 event, Beltrán’s interview with the replacement of the Vatican Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Robinson Peña Parra, was interrupted by Cisneros after the prelate was asked about the Maduro government’s “apparent politicization” of the canonizations, according to the Catholic media. The Pillar.

Antidemocratic measures and human rights violations in Venezuela have continued to attract increasing international attention, especially since January, when Maduro was sworn in for a third term following controversial presidential election results.

Meanwhile, earlier this month opposition leader Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless work in “promoting the democratic rights of the people of Venezuela” and for “his fight to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

This Monday, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in a Mass of thanksgiving for the two saints celebrated inside St. Peter’s Basilica, urged Venezuelans to respect human rights and “create spaces for meeting and democratic coexistence.”

“Only in this way, dear Venezuela, will you be able to respond to your vocation for peace, if you build it on the foundations of justice, truth, freedom and love,” said the cardinal in his homily on October 20.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.