The US government announced the release of Venezuelan government representative Alex Saab on the 20th. On the same day, the Venezuelan government released 10 U.S. citizens and extradited a fugitive from a major U.S. Navy corruption case to the United States.
The swap of detainees is the result of months of negotiations between Venezuela and the US brokered by Qatar.
Us officials said President Joseph Biden made the "extremely difficult decision" to order Saab's release.
Saab has served as a representative of the dialogue between the Venezuelan government and the opposition and is considered close to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Saab has dual Venezuelan and Colombian citizenship. The US justice Department has been eyeing Saab for years, indicting it in July 2019 on money laundering and other charges. In June 2020, Saab traveled to Iran as an envoy of the Venezuelan government, was arrested while stopping in Cape Verde, and was extradited to the United States in October 2021.
Saab denies all US allegations.
Saab returned to Venezuela on the 20th. Maduro called Saab's return a "victory for truth" and accused the United States of illegally detaining diplomats.
In exchange for Saab's release, Venezuela released 10 U.S. citizens and extradited Leonard Glenn Francis, a fugitive in a major U.S. Navy corruption case.
Francis, a Malaysian businessman, is accused of bribing U.S. Navy officials in order to profit from his business. He reached a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department in 2015, escaped from house arrest in California in September 2022, and was arrested in Venezuela the same month as he prepared to continue his escape.
In addition, Maduro also agreed to release at least 20 prisoners linked to the Venezuelan opposition.
Maduro won re-election in the 2018 presidential election. The United States did not recognize the results of the election and supported the self-declared "interim president" of the opposition, Juan Guaido.
Venezuela has suspended diplomatic relations with the United States since January 2019, and the United States has continued to expand economic sanctions against Venezuela, including banning the import of Venezuelan crude oil and freezing the assets of Venezuelan oil companies in the United States. Since May 2019, under the mediation of the Norwegian government, the Venezuelan government and the opposition have held several rounds of dialogue. In August 2021, the Venezuelan government and the opposition began a dialogue in Mexico. However, after several rounds of talks, the Venezuelan government called off the dialogue in October of that year, because of the United States Extradition Committee's government dialogue representative Saab.
Venezuela has some of the world's largest oil reserves. Last year, as the crisis in Ukraine intensified global energy supply tensions, the United States and European countries came under intense pressure from high oil prices, and the United States began to effectively relax sanctions on some oil producers. Maduro confirmed on March 7 last year that he met with a visiting high-level US delegation at the presidential Palace on the 5th of that month. Maduro again confirmed in late June last year that a number of senior US officials had visited Venezuela. After months of negotiations, the Venezuelan government announced the release of seven U.S. citizens on October 1 last year in exchange for the release of two Venezuelan citizens by the U.S. government. In October, the United States eased sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector.
