Italy – Il Fatto Quotidiano, Sept. 26, 2025
Armanda Colusso, the mother of Alberto Trentini, received a phone call from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who assured her of the commitment of Palazzo Chigi and Italian institutions to bring home the humanitarian worker, currently detained without charges in the El Rodeo I maximum-security prison in Venezuela, alongside other foreign prisoners. The news was announced by Palazzo Chigi in a statement released on Friday afternoon.
In the statement, the prime minister “renewed her personal closeness and that of the government to the family of the Italian humanitarian worker,” emphasizing “the great attention with which the government is following the matter and its utmost commitment, through all possible means, to achieve a positive outcome.” This is the first time Meloni has publicly mentioned Trentini by name.
The last phone call from the prime minister to the family dates back six months, at the beginning of April, with a similar message regarding the government’s efforts to secure Trentini’s release. However, the context of this latest brief conversation is different: it came after Deputy Foreign Minister Edmondo Cirielli called his Venezuelan counterpart, Andrea Corao Faria, ending four difficult years of diplomatic freeze and hostility between the two countries.
Moreover, three days ago, the Chargé d’Affaires in Caracas, Giovanni Umberto De Vito, paid a consular visit to Trentini and Mario Burlò — part of a broader opening by Venezuelan authorities toward Western nations. Trentini has now spent over 310 days in prison and 201 days since the start of a relay hunger strike calling for his release, but the stalemate surrounding the case seems to have finally been broken.
