Venezuela releases seven Americans in exchange for the release of two nephews of Maduro's wife

Venezuela released seven US prisoners on Saturday in exchange for the release of two nephews of the wife of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who had spent years in US prisons for drug trafficking convictions, according to the White House.

The prisoner exchange, including five US oil executives held for almost five years in Venezuela, is the largest carried out by the Joe Biden government.

“We are relieved and pleased to be able to welcome back to their families seven Americans who have been unjustly detained for far too long in Venezuela,” said Joshua Geltzer, deputy national security adviser.

CITGO oil executives (from left to right) José Ángel Pereira, Gustavo Cárdenas, Jorge Toledo, José Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Vadell and Alirio José Zambrano., Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP File

It is an unusual political gesture by Maduro, at a time when he is seeking to rebuild his relationship with the United States, taking advantage of the fact that international sanctions have reduced Russia's role as an oil exporter, and after months of contacts with the main hostage negotiator. from the White House.

Among those released are five employees of the Texas company Citgo (Tomeu Vadell, José Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo and José Pereira), who were lured to Venezuela in November 2017 to attend a meeting with the state oil giant.

Once there, they were dragged away by masked security agents who stormed a Caracas conference room.

Also released were Matthew Heath, a military veteran from Tennessee who was detained in 2020 at a roadblock in Venezuela on false charges, according to the State Department, and Osman Khan, a native of Florida, who was arrested in January.

In exchange, the United States released Franqui Flores and his cousin Efraín Campo, nephews of Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores.

The men were arrested in Haiti in a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operation in 2015 and transferred to New York to stand trial.

They were convicted in 2016 in a case that illustrated US allegations of drug trafficking at the highest levels of the Maduro administration.

Both were pardoned by President Joe Biden before their release to make the prisoner swap possible.