Venezuela agreed to a prisoner swap where they sent Washington seven innocent Americans — including the remaining members of the “Citgo Five” — in exchange for two nephews of President Nicholas Maduro’s wife who were convicted drug dealers.
The “Citgo 5” were lured to Venezuela by the Maduro government with the ruse that the executives were to attend a budget meeting with Citgo’s parent company PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-run oil-and-gas company. Instead, the executives were arrested and tagged with trumped-up corruption charges.
One of the Citgo 5 was released earlier this year.
American officials said the two Venezuelans known as the “narco nephews” — Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas — were flown to a third country on Saturday at the same time that a plane carrying the Americans landed in the same country, which officials would not name.
A senior administration official called the president’s action to grant clemency “a tough decision and a painful decision,” but said it was the only way to persuade Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to release the Americans.
Campo Flores was arrested in Port-au-Prince, Haiti by DEA agents trying to smuggle 1,700 pounds of coke out of the country. There is some indication that the proceeds from the drug deal were going to help keep Maduro in power, but that was never proved in court.
Maduro claims his wife’s nephews were innocent.
Maduro’s government said in a statement that as a result of talks that started in March two young Venezuelans “unjustly” held in the United States were freed, as well as a group of U.S. citizens who were subject to Venezuelan court proceedings and were released for “humanitarian reasons.”
The freed Americans were all in stable health and “overjoyed to be heading home,” while the two Venezuelans were en route back to the South American country, a senior Biden administration official told reporters in a telephone briefing.
The Trump administration first sanctioned Maduro and Venezuela’s oil industry in 2018 in an attempt to get Maduro to resign after the crooked presidential election of 2018. Lifting the sanctions has been predicated on Maduro negotiating with the man who apparently won the election, Juan Guaidó. It’s unknown whether Biden quietly okayed a side deal where some sanctions would be lifted after the Americans were home safe and sound.
It’s good to get the Americans home but at what cost?
Today Biden released two convicted drug dealer nephews of #Venezuela dictator Maduro in exchange for 7 innocent Americans being held hostage
Another Biden appeasement that will result in more anti-U.S. dictators taking more innocent Americans hostage in the future
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 1, 2022
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