As a part of the settlement, US President Joe Biden grants clemency to Alex Saab, an ally of Nicolas Maduro.
The United States and Venezuela have reached a deal to swap 10 American prisoners for a jailed ally of President Nicolas Maduro, the newest signal of bettering relations between Washington and Caracas.
The White House mentioned on Wednesday that the deal secured the discharge of 10 US residents from Venezuela, together with six individuals who it mentioned had been wrongfully detained.
As a part of the settlement, US President Joe Biden granted clemency to Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman and Maduro ally who was being held in a Miami jail awaiting trial on a cost of cash laundering.
Saab was launched from custody and returned to Venezuela on Wednesday, the Venezuelan authorities mentioned.
US prosecutors have accused Saab of siphoning off $350m from Venezuela through the US in a scheme that concerned bribing Venezuelan authorities officers. He has denied the cost.
“The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela celebrates with joy the liberation and return to his homeland of our diplomat Alex Saab, who until today was unjustly kidnapped in a U.S. jail,” the Venezuelan authorities mentioned in a press release.
Reporting from Bogota, Colombia, Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti mentioned Saab was seen as being “very close” to the Venezuelan chief.
“Alex Saab is a Colombian entrepreneur, a very close ally for Nicolas Maduro, a person who is seen here as a bag man for the Venezuelan regime,” Rampietti mentioned.
The White House mentioned Venezuela had additionally agreed to launch a minimum of 20 Venezuelan prisoners, together with “political detainees”.
The prisoner swap talks had been facilitated by Qatar, the White House mentioned. Qatar’s chief negotiator met Maduro final week.
Six Venezuelan activists have already been freed, based on their lawyer and the spouse of one among them. The longtime schooling campaigners had been convicted on conspiracy costs this 12 months and sentenced to 16 years however have proclaimed their innocence.
As a part of the deal, all six Americans who had been categorized by the US as wrongfully detained in Venezuela had been launched, US officers informed the Reuters information company.
Venezuela additionally returned to the US fugitive Malaysian businessman Leonard Glenn Francis, often called “Fat Leonard”, who’s implicated in a US navy bribery case, the officers mentioned.
The White House has mentioned in latest weeks that it anticipated to see progress on prisoner releases if it had been to proceed with sanctions aid for Caracas. The sanctions aid was unveiled in October in response to an settlement by the Venezuelan authorities to carry truthful elections in 2024.
While relations between the US and Venezuela stay uneasy, the 2 nations have taken steps to ease tensions in latest months.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/20/venezeula-us-reach-prisoner-swap-deal?traffic_source=rss
