Caracas (AP) – six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela in recent months were released by the government of President Nicolás Maduro, after he met Friday with a senior US official in charge of urging the South American president to accept back to deported migrants who have committed crimes in the United States.
US President Donald Trump and his envoy for special missions, Richard Grenelll, announced the release of the six men on social networks. Grenelll’s visit surprised many Venezuelans who expected Trump to continue the “maximum pressure” campaign he carried out against Maduro during his first term.
According to the White House, the trip of a few hours from Grenelll to Venezuela focused on Trump’s attempts to deport Venezuelans back to their native country, which does not currently accept them, and in the release of the Americans detained.
“We took off and heading home with these six Americans,” Grenell wrote on the social network X along with a photograph where he appears with men aboard an aircraft. “They just talked to Donald Trump and couldn’t stop thanking him.”
The meeting in the capital of Venezuela took place less than a month after Maduro lent an oath for a third six -year term, despite credible evidence that he lost last year’s elections. The US government, together with several other Western nations, does not recognize the victory claimed by Maduro, and instead refers to minutes collected by the opposition coalition that show that their candidate, Edmundo González, won by a margin of more than 2 A 1.
The Venezuelan state television network broadcast images of Grenelll and Maduro talking at the Miraflores Palace, and said the meeting had been requested by the United States government.
During the signing of an executive order in the Oval office on Friday, Trump was asked if the fact that they captured Grenell by meeting with Maduro gave legitimacy to a government that the White House has not officially recognized.
“No. We want to do something with Venezuela. I have been a great opponent of Venezuela and Maduro, ”Trump replied. “They have not treated us very well, but more importantly, they have treated the Venezuelan people very bad.”
In statements on state television after Grenell had left Venezuela, Maduro said the visit allowed “first agreements”, but did not give details.
“I have seen three presidents of the United States pass in front of me,” said the president. “This is the fourth period, and our message has been one nothing more: we want to build relations of respect for the sovereignty of Venezuela, to the democratic life of Venezuela, to international law and our Latin American region.”
Meanwhile, some Republicans criticized the visit.
“It’s a terrible moment” to do this, said Elliott Abrams, who served as a special envoy to Venezuela and Iran during Trump’s first government. “A meeting with Maduro will be used by him to legitimize his government and demonstrate that Americans recognize him as president. If the purpose is to send a hard message about migratory issues, the president could have done it himself. There was no need to send someone to Caracas. ”
The dispute over electoral results unleashed protests throughout the South American country. More than 2,200 people were arrested during and after the demonstrations.
Among the detainees there are up to 10 Americans, whom the government has linked with alleged plots to destabilize the country. Neither the White House nor the Maduro government immediately announced the names of the six that were released on Friday.
A non -profit group that had advocated the release of a detainee said that David Estrella, a 62 -year -old man who had news for the last time in September, was among those who returned to the United States. The Venezuelan Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, had accused Star of being part of an alleged plot to kill Maduro.
The Trump government has taken a series of actions to meet the promises to combat illegal immigration and carry out the largest mass deportation initiative in the history of the United States.
These measures include the revocation this week of a decision of the government of former president Joe Biden that would have protected approximately 600,000 Venezuelans of deportation. This revocation puts some at risk of being expelled from the country in about two months.
The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists on Friday that Trump had instructed Grenelll to “identify a place and ensure that repatriation flights” that take Venezuelans – including members of the criminal organization Train from Aragua— “terrify in Venezuela.” He added that Trump also ordered Grenell to “ensure that all Americans arrested in Venezuela are returned home.”
More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2013, when their economy collapsed and Maduro assumed the position for the first time. The majority were established in other Latin American and Caribbean countries, but after the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more migrants looked into the United States.
It is foresee that Venezuelans’ desire for better living conditions and their rejection of Maduro and their policies continue to drive people to emigrate.
Before last year’s presidential elections, a national survey conducted by the research firm of the Pathos – with the headquarters in Venezuela – showed that approximately a quarter of the population planned to emigrate if Maduro was re -elected.
Grenelll had already contacted Maduro on behalf of Trump to try to get the release of jailed Americans, but returned empty -handed.
In 2020 he traveled with Erik Prince, founder of the controversial Blackwater Security Company, to Mexico City for a secret meeting with a high -ranked Maduro assistant. Confidential conversations focused on Maduro’s offer to exchange eight Americans then imprisoned in Venezuela by businessman Alex Saab, a nearby ally of the president who had been accused in the United States of money laundering, as previously reported The Associated Press.
No agreement was reached, and Grenell’s demand that Maduro resigned was rejected by the welcoming of the Venezuelan president. Grenelll has always denied that he was negotiating an exchange of hostages.
Later, in December 2023, the Biden government exchanged SAAB for 10 Americans as part of a policy to resume links with Maduro before the presidential elections.
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Goodman reported in Miami. The Associated Press Will Wessert journalist in Washington contributed to this office.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.
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