Venezuela releases Americans ahead of US delegation visit

Caracas – AFP
After a surprise visit by a US delegation to Caracas at the weekend, Venezuelan authorities released on Tuesday two Americans, one of the six former executives of Citgo, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan National Oil Company, convicted of corruption.
“I confirm that the released is Gustavo Cardenas,” lawyer Jesus Loreto said. The other five are still in detention.
The six men, who are five Venezuelans who obtained American citizenship, and a Venezuelan who has a permanent residence card in the United States, have been living since their arrest in their home country in 2017, amid the fluctuating relations between Caracas and Washington.
This case contributed to increasing tension in relations between Venezuela and the United States, which has repeatedly called for the release of these detainees.
According to the Foro Pinal NGO, which specializes in human rights and prisoners, members of the Citgo 6 group are among the 251 political prisoners in Venezuela.
The Cuban-American Jorge Alberto Fernandez, who was arrested in early 2021 in the state of Tachira on the border with Colombia, was also released and charged with terrorism.
“Unjustly detained, accused of being a terrorist just because he owned a drone,” the NGO Coalition for Human Rights wrote on Twitter.
The release of the Americans comes a day after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced, after meeting with the US delegation, that he would reactivate dialogue with the opposition. This could be a sign that relations between the United States and Venezuela are beginning to warm again.
The United States, which does not recognize Maduro’s re-election in 2018, imposed a package of sanctions on Caracas in an attempt to remove him from power, including preventing Venezuela since 2019 from trading its crude oil, which represents 96 percent of the country’s revenues, on the American market.
But US President Joe Biden announced, on Tuesday, a ban on US imports of Russian oil and gas, with the aim of strengthening sanctions imposed on Russia, following the military operations in Ukraine.
Russia is a close ally of Venezuela, and President Maduro has repeatedly reiterated his support for Vladimir Putin in recent days.
Maduro had confirmed that the meeting with the US delegation, on Monday, was marked by respect and diplomatic friendliness, without going into details about the issues that were touched upon.
“It was done in the presidential office,” he said. We talked for about two hours,” he said, adding, “It seemed to me very important to be able, face to face, to discuss topics that are very important to Venezuela.”
For her part, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that “the purpose of the trip that administration officials took to Venezuela was to discuss a range of issues, including energy and energy security.”