US, Venezuela hold prisoner exchange

Venezuela freed seven Americans in exchange for the release of two nephews of President Nicholas Maduro’s wife jailed for years by the United States on drug smuggling convictions.

The swap of the Americans on October 1, including five oil executives held for nearly five years, is the largest trade of detained citizens ever carried out by the Biden administration, according to Al Jazeera.

“These individuals will soon be reunited with their families and back in the arms of their loved ones where they belong,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

“Today, after years of being wrongfully detained in Venezuela, we are bringing home” the seven men, whom the president cited by name. “We celebrate that seven families will be whole once more.”

The prisoner swap amounts to a rare gesture of goodwill by Maduro as the socialist leader looks to rebuild relations with the US after vanquishing most of his domestic opponents.

The deal follows months of back-channel diplomacy by Washington’s top hostage negotiator and other US officials – secretive talks with a major oil producer that took on greater urgency after sanctions on Russia put pressure on global energy prices.

Those freed include five employees of Houston-based Citgo – Tomeu Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo and Jose Pereira – who were lured to Venezuela in 2017 to attend a meeting at the headquarters of the company’s parent, state-run-oil giant PDVSA. Once there, they were hauled away by masked security agents who burst into a Caracas conference room.

Also released was Matthew Heath, a former US Marine corporal who was arrested in 2020 at a roadblock in Venezuela on what the Department of State has called “specious” weapons charges and Osman Khan who was arrested in January.