2/19/2023 0 Comments Slapdash news at five![]() ![]() The Biden administration has been under pressure to do more to bring home the roughly 60 Americans it believes are held hostage abroad or wrongfully detained by hostile foreign governments. ![]() Politics The families of Americans who are wrongfully detained are very much done being quiet There are dozens of Americans wrongfully detained overseas accusations of drug trafficking at the highest levels of Maduro's administration.īoth men were granted clemency by Biden before the release. They were convicted the following year in a highly charged case that cast a hard look at U.S. The men were arrested in Haiti in a Drug Enforcement Administration sting in 2015 and immediately taken to New York to face trial. ![]() The United States freed Franqui Flores and his cousin Efrain Campo nephews of "First Combatant" Cilia Flores, as Maduro has called his wife. Marine corporal from Tennessee who was arrested in 2020 at a roadblock in Venezuela on what the State Department has called "specious" weapons charges, and Florida man, Osman Khan, who was arrested in January. I'm just so happy."Īlso released was Matthew Heath, a former U.S. Holding back tears of joy on her 31st birthday, she said: "This is the best birthday present ever. "I can't believe it," said Vadell's daughter, Cristina, when contacted in Houston by The Associated Press. Once there, they were hauled away by masked security agents who busted into a Caracas conference room. 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 right before Thanksgiving in 2017 to attend a meeting at the headquarters of the company's parent, state-run-oil giant PDVSA. and Venezuela after the men in the deal arrived in separate planes, the Biden administration said. The transfer took place in a country between the U.S. officials - secretive talks with a major oil producer that took on greater urgency after sanctions on Russia put pressure on global energy prices. The deal follows months of back channel diplomacy by Washington's top hostage negotiator and other U.S. after vanquishing most of his domestic opponents. The exchange amounts to an unusual gesture of goodwill by Maduro as the socialist leader looks to rebuild relations with the U.S. It praised the diplomacy that resulted in the freeing of the two "unjustly imprisoned" Venezuelans imprisoned in the United States and said it "hopes for the preservation of peace and harmony with all the nations of our region and the world." The oil employees went to Venezuela to meet with the state-run oil giant Maduro's government said in a statement that it was releasing the American citizens as a humanitarian gesture. Latin America Venezuela releases 2 Americans after visit from U.S. The White House said Biden had spoken with the families and that the men were in stable health and have been offered a range of support services, including medical care. "We celebrate that seven families will be whole once more." "Today, after years of being wrongfully detained in Venezuela, we are bringing home" the seven men, whom the president cited by name. "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. The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives held for nearly five years, is the largest trade of detained citizens ever carried out by the Biden administration. WASHINGTON - In a rare softening of hostile relations, the White House said Saturday that Venezuela freed seven Americans imprisoned in the South American country and the United States released two nephews of President Nicolás Maduro's wife who had been jailed for years on drug smuggling convictions. Posted on Twitter by Jorge Arreaza/Venezuela's Foreign Ministry via AP The five men were among the seven Americans released by Venezuela as part of a swap with the U.S. This undated photo shows oil executives Jose Angel Pereira, from left to right, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Jose Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Vadell and Alirio Jose Zambrano in Caracas, Venezuela. ![]()
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