The flight bringing aid worker Alberto Trentini and businessman Mario Burlò to Italy after their 14-month ordeal in prison in Venezuela landed on Tuesday at Rome’s Ciampino, where they were welcomed back by Premier Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
“We make it, but it was really hard,” Burlò, who was also had his children Gianna and Corrado waiting for him at the airport, said according to his lawyer Maurizio Basile.
On Monday Meloni expressed “joy and satisfaction” and thanked Interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, who has started to free some of the political prisoners in the country’s jails after the United States ousted Nicolas Maduro.
Venetian aid worker Trentini was arrested in the state of Apure in November 2024 while working for the Humanity and Inclusion NGO and was held in the El Rodeo maximum-security jail in Caracas even though no formal charges have been pressed against him.
Burlò was also detained in November 2024 for no clear reason after going to Venezuela to explore new business opportunities.
Among those who had already been released were Italian-Venezuelan politician and journalist Biagio Pilieri, who had been in jail for 16 months, and 77-year-old Italian businessman Luigi Gasperin, who was arrested in August 2025 over explosives that were allegedly being held by his company.
