Carrie Kahn

Less than 40 detainees had been released from Venezuelan prisons as of Thursday morning, according to the human rights group Foro Penal.

Jorge Rodriguez, the head of the National Assembly, and the brother of the interim president had said 300 prisoners would be released on humanitarian grounds.

Authorities did release three men, former police officers, who had spent each more than 20 years in Venezuelan custody.

They were convicted in connection to the deaths of protesters during a 2002 opposition march.

Human rights groups say there are at least 400 political prisoners still held in jails, despite an amnesty law passed this year and pledges of more releases this week, including from President Trump.

Carrie Khan, NPR News.

This is NPR.

Yes, there has been an uptick in strikes in recent weeks, which has brought this back in the news.

But the information we're getting about them and the controversy about them just stays the same.

Like the latest strike, which was on Tuesday, which the U.S.

's Southern Command says killed three men.

As usual, the military posts a short video on social media and the same terse statement that those killed were members of what they say is a designated terrorist organization called

transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, but no evidence or further information is provided.

Legal experts say the strikes are extrajudicial killings and that even if the suspects are criminals under international law, the U.S.

must interdict them and give them a trial, which has been U.S.

policy for decades.

President Trump says the U.S.

is involved in a war, the war on drugs, and that these men are combatants and claims that they can be killed legally.

Yes, there is disturbing testimony coming out of Ecuador about three strikes.

The most documented was on a shrimp trawler off the Galapagos Islands that occurred on around March 26.