Prisoner swap: Maduro comrade exchanged for ten Americans

Photo by EPA

Ten Americans who have been illegally detained in Venezuela have been released in a prisoner exchange operation between Washington and Caracas, the National Security Council in the White House announced today.

In return, Venezuela gets it back Alex Saab, associate of the Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro, who in 2019 in Florida was accused of money laundering, in 2020 was arrested in the Republic of Cape Verde and extradited to the United States the following year, where he was awaiting trial. He has been pardoned by US President Joe Biden.

Six of the Americans were illegally detained. One is a fugitive from the law, Leonard Glenn Francis, known as "Fat Leonard", who was indicted in 2015 in the largest corruption case in the history of the US Navy. After being arrested and placed under house arrest in San Diego in 2018, he managed to flee the country last year but was arrested by the Venezuelan authorities after a few weeks on an Interpol warrant.

As part of the agreement, Venezuela will also release 20 political prisoners.

The agreement was brokered by Qatar, but Venezuela pledged to respect the Barbados Agreement reached between Maduro's government and the opposition to hold fair and inclusive elections in the country in 2024, a US Security Council official said.

Venezuela is also getting a chance to start talks on easing US oil sanctions on the country, but that is mostly tied to fulfilling the Barbados Treaty, the White House said.

The successful operation to free these detainees, led by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, is part of an effort by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the President of the United States to free American citizens illegally held elsewhere, including those in Russia.

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