Venezuelan authorities released two Americans on Tuesday in a gesture of goodwill to the US government following the first formal diplomatic talks between Washington and Caracas in more than three years.
Referring to this fact, the US President Joe Biden “Two Americans who were unjustly imprisoned in Venezuela will be able to hug their families again,” he said in a press release.
No details were released about their release.
One of them is a member of the group of six executives of CITGO, the US subsidiary of the Venezuelan public oil company, which was arrested in Caracas in 2017, sources in Venezuela told the Miami Herald newspaper – which was later confirmed, his name is mentioned in the White House statement. House. This is Gustavo Cardenas, who was convicted of corruption, after a trial that Washington characterized as unfair and with “fabricated” evidence. The second, Cuban-American Jorge Alberto Fernandez, had been arrested in another case.
The release of the two US citizens was recorded on the day when US President Joe Biden announced the imposition of an embargo on oil imports from Russia, due to the invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine. The Biden government is considering turning to Venezuela to replace Russian imports as fuel prices soar.
Over the weekend, US officials traveled to Caracas for talks with President Nicolas Maduro, including on easing US sanctions on oil of Venezuela. Washington severed ties with Maduro’s government in 2019 and recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate caretaker president.
A senior member of Mr Guido’s team said Washington had informed her of the findings after the talks were completed.
Nicolas Maduro is calling for the lifting of all US sanctions, a halt to investigations into members of his politically motivated family, and the recognition of him as the country’s legitimate president by 2024, when his term ends, according to member of Mr Guido’s team.
The spokeswoman for the US presidency, Jen Psaki, said on Monday that talks on US release and sanctions were being held “separately”. These are “different” issues, he noted, explaining that they are part of “a wider discussion with Venezuela”.
Joe Biden’s government’s contacts with that of socialist Nicolas Maduro encounter reactions inside, even within his party. Senator Robert Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on the White House not to strike a deal with Caracas.
He described Nicolas Maduro as a “cancer in our hemisphere”, calling on the White House not to “breathe new life” into his government, which he accused of “torturing and killing” its opponents.
A U.S. government official has said that Washington is pushing for the release of all Americans detained in Venezuela, including six CITGO executives, Matthew Heath, a former Marine, and two former members of the Marine Corps.
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