The exchange highlighted efforts by the Biden administration since Russia invaded Ukraine in February to improve tattered relations with Venezuela as an alternative source of oil. In March, US and Venezuelan officials discussed the possibility of easing sanctions on oil exports from Venezuela.
Those released on Saturday were Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell, Alirio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano, Jose Pereira, Matthew Heath and Osman Khan. All are US citizens with the exception of Pereira, a lawful permanent resident of the United States.
Vadell, the Zambrano brothers and Pereira were employees of Houston-based Citgo attending a 2017 meeting in Venezuela when they were grabbed by masked officers who stormed into their conference room. Heath, a former US Marine corporal, was arrested on what the US called “specious” weapons charges in 2020. Khan, a Florida man was arrested in January.
“You never prepare for these things. we are shocked,” Veronica Vadell Weggeman, daughter of Tomeu Vadell, told The Washington Post in a post, confirming the news came as a surprise to the family. “We are very grateful that President Biden was able to bring him home.”
The two Venezuelans known as the “narco nephews,” Efraín Campo and Francisco Flores, nephews of Venezuela’s first lady Cilia Flores, were arrested in Haiti in 2015 as part of a Drug Enforcement Administration drug bust after attempting to smuggle cocaine into the United States. In 2017, they were sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilty.
A senior administration official said Biden made “the difficult decision” to grant clemency to the two men.
“Today we celebrate that seven families will be whole again,” Biden said in a statement. “To all the families still suffering and separated from their wrongfully detained loved ones, know that we remain committed to securing their release. Among those detained are WNBA star Brittney Griner and security consultant Paul Whelan, both of whom are still being held in Russia despite ongoing negotiations for their release.
Also on Saturday, Iran released an Iranian-American businessman, Siamak Namazi, imprisoned seven years ago during a visit to Tehran, and his aging father, Baquer Namazi, according to a United Nations statement.
Senior administration officials told reporters that those who had been released “appeared to be stable, but obviously they’re happy, they’re excited to be going home to their loved ones,” they said.
Venezuela issued its own statement shortly after confirming the news, saying it acted for “humanitarian reasons”. The statement also confirmed that “two young Venezuelans unjustly imprisoned” in the United States have been released as part of talks that began in March this year between the two governments.
“It became clear during negotiations that the release of two Venezuelans was essential to securing the release of these Americans,” the US officials said.
It appears to be another step towards normalizing years of turbulent diplomatic relations between the socialist country and the United States. In March, two Americans were released following a visit to Caracas by a high-level US delegation, the first after the US severed diplomatic relations in 2019 after President Donald Trump’s administration recognized Juan Guaidó, then president of the National Assembly, as interim. President.
Yet Guaidó has little practical authority in the country and little influence outside. He admitted to the Post in November that if the United States were to withdraw its support, “it would be difficult for us to deal with a dictatorship of these characteristics.”
The opposition, now sharply divided, has tried several times to relaunch a negotiation process with the Maduro government, the last in 2021, then interrupted by the arrest and then extradition of businessman Alex Saab.
Saab, a Colombian businessman considered a diplomat by the Venezuelan government, was extradited to the United States and charged with money laundering. Since then, Venezuela has invested heavily in his release.
Aim reported from Washington.
