Chavista regime in Venezuela releases two Americans

The Chavista regime in Venezuela released two imprisoned Americans, including an oil executive held with several colleagues for more than four years, while seeking to improve its relations with the government of Joe Biden in the midst of Russia’s war in Ukraine, it announced the White House Tuesday night.

Gustavo Cárdenas was released after a secret visit to the country by high-ranking US government officials, including the White House’s top official for Latin America and the State Department’s top hostage negotiator. Venezuelan authorities also released Jorge Fernández, arrested last year for what Washington described as “false charges”.

“These men are fathers who have lost precious time with their children and all their loved ones, and their families have suffered every day of their absence.”, President Biden said in a statement.

The release came hours after the illegitimate Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, indicated his interest in improving relations with the United States amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine and concern in Washington about rising gasoline prices.

In a televised speech, Maduro appeared to indicate that he was willing to accede to US demands to resume negotiations with his opponents as a first step towards any relief from sanctions that have punished the OPEC member country for years.

U.S. officials have not pointed to other specific results of the talks, but noted that the releases reflected months of relationship-building work between the two nations, especially by Roger Carstens, the presidential special envoy for hostage affairs.

Carstens returned home empty-handed from a previous trip to Caracas in December, which officials say nonetheless served to establish a relationship of trust and lay the groundwork for Tuesday’s release.

But he returned to Venezuela last weekend with other government officials, including Juan González, director of the National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere, and Ambassador James Story, who heads the US government’s Venezuelan Affairs Unit from neighboring Venezuela. Colombia.

The Biden executive described it as the first visit by a White House official to the country since Hugo Chavez took over in the late 1990s, and a rare occasion to discuss political issues with the Maduro regime. An official said it wasa constructive, diplomatic but very sincere dialogue” and that it was not a quid pro quo but allowed the US government to share its “vision of the world” with the Venezuelan president.

Senior administration officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in compliance with basic executive rules, declined to explain how Cárdenas and Fernández were selected from among the nearly 10 US detainees, but noted that Carstens pushed for all of them to remain. free.

Cárdenas and five other executives of Citgo, the Houston-based subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company, had been detained in Venezuela since 2017, when they were detained by masked security agents while participating in a meeting in Caracas. They had traveled to the country to attend a meeting at the PDVSA offices.

They were sentenced to prison for a never-executed plan to refinance some $4 billion in oil company bonds by offering a 50% stake in the oil giant as collateral. The prosecution accused the managers of trying to benefit from the alleged pact.

The US government has pushed for their release, claiming they were sent to prison without a fair trial.

Three other Americans are detained in the country: two former Green Berets, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, who were arrested for their part in a confusing plot to overthrow Maduro, and former US Marine Matthew Heath, who is being held on weapons charges.

Fernández was arrested in February 2021 near the border with Colombia after being found with a drone, a device whose use is restricted in Venezuela. He was accused of terrorism.

Gonzalo Himiob, lawyer and vice president director of Foro Penal, said in a statement that the end of arbitrary detention should be celebrated, but he warned of the consequences that an agreement such as the one that led to the release of Cárdenas could have.

“The release of any political prisoner, when it arises from an agreement between political actors, and not from respect for the law, confirms that from the beginning the reasons for the detention were neither legal nor valid, but political and, consequently, arbitrary and contrary to human rightsHimiob said.

The weekend talks came just over three years after the United States severed relations with Maduro and recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate ruler of Venezuela.

The talks come after months of efforts by intermediaries – US lobbyists, Norwegian diplomats and international oil executives – who have been pushing for Biden to review the so far unsuccessful “maximum pressure” campaign he inherited from his predecessor to oust Trump. Mature.

But the push for rapprochement with Maduro, who has been sanctioned and is indicted in New York on drug charges, took on greater urgency after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent US sanctions. The Ukrainian crisis promises to rearrange global alliances and cause gasoline prices to rise, aggravating inflation that is already at its highest level in four decades.

Last week, top Democratic and Republican lawmakers began voicing support for a ban on Russian oil and natural gas imports as the next step to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion.

Venezuela is Putin’s main ally in Latin America and one of the main oil exporters. Its re-entry into US energy markets could mitigate the repercussions on gas stations of a possible oil embargo on Russia. But the discussions in Caracas were quickly condemned by Democratic and Republican senators.

US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Biden’s attempts to unite the world against Putin “must not be undermined when shoring” to Maduro, whose government is being investigated by the International Criminal Court for possible crimes against humanity committed against protesters in 2017.

The US-backed Venezuelan opposition faction insisted it remains open to resuming negotiations with Maduro in order to set a date for fair and democratic presidential and legislative elections. He warned that any reduction in sanctions must be accompanied by genuine progress towards a democratic transition.

“The lifting of any measure of pressure, if it is not oriented towards democratization, would only strengthen the authoritarianism that today threatens the world… Only a Venezuela with democratic, institutional and transparency guarantees can be a reliable and efficient energy provider for the world”, expressed the faction.