activists considered to be political prisoners.
Manuel Rosales was imprisoned in October 2015 on
 charges of illicit enrichment upon returning to Venezuela after six years of exile in Peru.
Rosales, former governor of Zulia state, who challenged
 then-president Hugo Chavez in 2006, was released before dawn on Saturday along with five activists who were 
jailed during anti-government protests in 2014.
"I have been freed, along with other political 
prisoners," Rosales wrote on Twitter.
Opposition groups said that those freed in addition to 
Rosales were Skarlyn Duarte, Yeimi Varela, Nixon Leal, 
Angel Contreras and Gerardo Carrero.
Carrero is a prominent activist who led a group of 
students who camped for weeks outside the UN 
offices in Caracas to draw attention to a government crackdown 
on protests blamed for scores of deaths.
But Rosales remains under house arrest and the five 
others released still face charges arising from their activities in 2014, for which they will have to 
periodically present themselves to judicial authorities.
"We will continue to fight for the liberation of 
everyone," Rosales said.
The releases come as a two-month-old, Vatican-mediated attempt at dialogue to ease tensions fuelled by the 
country's deep economic and political crisis hangs by a thread.

New round of protests

President Nicolas Maduro has refused to cede ground to opponents seeking his removal. With many in the 
opposition pushing for a new round of street protests, the Democratic Unity alliance has said it will participate in the next 
scheduled meeting on January 13 unless the government 
meets its demands.
Those include releasing more than 100 people it 
considers to be political prisoners and naming a new 
board to the government-controlled electoral council.
Venezuela's political crisis has been intensifying since authorities in October blocked an opposition effort to
 collect signatures and force a recall vote against Maduro.
But even many poor Venezuelans, who traditionally
 formed the base of the revolution started by the late
 Chavez, have abandoned their support for the
 government amid
 triple-digit inflation and widespread shortages that have made putting food on the dinner table an all-consuming, 
daily ordeal.