First modification:
The White House confirmed that the government of Nicolás Maduro released two US citizens imprisoned in Venezuela, including an oil executive held for more than four years. The releases come at a time when Caracas is seeking to improve relations with the Joe Biden administration after rapprochement on energy issues in the face of high oil prices due to the war in Ukraine.
An apparent gesture of goodwill from Caracas to Washington. Gustavo Cardenas and Jorge Fernandeztwo US citizens jailed in Venezuela were released.
Cárdenas is one of six executives of Citgo Petroleum Corporation, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA, arrested in 2017 and convicted on charges that the US government says were fabricated.
The accusations stemmed from a never-executed plan to refinance some $4 billion in Citgo bonds by offering a 50% stake in the company as collateral. Prosecutors accused the men of maneuvering to profit from the proposed deal.
Meanwhile, Fernández was arrested in 2021 near the Colombian border after being found in possession of a drone, the use of which is restricted in Venezuela. He was charged with terrorism, something the White House described as a “spurious charge.”
“Tonight, two Americans who were wrongfully detained in Venezuela will be able to hug their families again,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement.
The US pushed for their release, saying they did not get a fair trial.
The turn of relations between the US and Caracas in the face of the war in Ukraine
Although Washington claimed that the releases came after months of intervention by the US presidential envoy for hostage affairs, Roger Carstens, the Americans previously saw their return to freedom thwarted.
They have finally managed to return to their country at a time when Washington and Caracas are seeking rapprochement, especially on energy issues, after Biden announced that his government is stopping buying fuel from Russia because of the war launched in Ukraine.
Carstens made a trip to Venezuela last December that did not result in the immediate release of the detainees. However, the special envoy returned to Caracas over the weekend along with other officials from the Biden Administration, including Juan González, director of the National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere, and Ambassador James Story, who heads the United States Affairs Unit. Venezuela from the US Government in neighboring Colombia.
The United States described it as the first visit to Venezuela by a White House official since Hugo Chavez led the country in the late 1990s, and a rare opportunity to discuss policy issues with the Maduro government.
The weekend discussions also came just over three years after the United States severed relations with Maduro and recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader.
Gonzalo Himiob, lawyer and vice president of the NGO Foro Penal, affirmed that the end of arbitrary detention should be celebrated, but he warned about the consequences that an agreement such as the one that led to the release of Cárdenas and Fernández could bring.
“The release of any political prisoner, when it arises from an agreement between political actors and not from respect, confirms that from the beginning the reasons for the detention were neither legal nor valid, but political and, consequently, arbitrary and contrary to the human rights,” Himiob stressed.
The price of crude oil rises and global relations are reconfigured
The impetus to reach out to Maduro, who has been sanctioned and is indicted in New York on drug charges, took on added urgency after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent US sanctions.
The conflict on Ukrainian soil promises to reshuffle global alliances and add to rising gasoline prices fueling inflation that is already at its highest level in four decades.
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 blow to a possible oil embargo on Russia.
However, the rapprochement with Caracas was quickly condemned by several Democratic and Republican senators, as well as by the Venezuelan opposition.
With Reuters, AP and EFE