{"id":8389,"date":"2023-12-22T07:24:52","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T12:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8389"},"modified":"2023-12-22T07:24:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T12:24:52","slug":"u-s-venezuela-swap-prisoners-maduro-ally-for-10-americans-plus-fugitive-contractor-fat-leonard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8389","title":{"rendered":"U.S., Venezuela Swap Prisoners: Maduro Ally for 10 Americans, Plus Fugitive Contractor \u2018Fat Leonard\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Photo by: Stephen Spillman\/AP Freed Americans Joseph Ryan Cristella, backwards cap sixth from left, Eyvin Hernandez, seventh from left, Edgar Jose Marval Moreno, eighth from left, Jason Saad, ninth from left in red, Savoi Wright, tenth from left in back, and Jerrel Kenemore, eight from right, who were released in a prisoner swap deal between U.S. and Venezuela, pose for a photo with government officials at Kelly Airfield Annex, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023, in San Antonio, Texas. (AP Photo\/Stephen Spillman)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The United States freed a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a><\/span> in exchange for the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in the South American country and the return of a fugitive defense contractor<\/a><\/span> known as \u201cFat Leonard\u201d<\/a><\/span> who is at the center of a massive Pentagon bribery scandal, the Biden administration announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The American detainees were back on U.S. soil late Wednesday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. Six of them arrived at Kelly Airfield Annex in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Savoi Wright, a Californian who had been arrested in Venezuela in October, said, \u201cFree at last, free at last, thank God almighty, free at last\u201d after disembarking the plane.<\/p>\n

The deal represents the Biden administration\u2019s boldest move yet to improve relations with the major oil-producing nation and extract concessions from the self-proclaimed socialist leader. The largest release of American prisoners in Venezuela\u2019s history comes weeks after the White House agreed to suspend some sanctions<\/a><\/span>, following a commitment by Maduro to work toward free and fair conditions for the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n

Maduro celebrated the return of Alex Saab as a \u201ctriumph for truth\u201d over what he called a U.S.-led campaign of lies, threats and torture against someone he considers a Venezuelan diplomat illegally arrested on a U.S. warrant.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Biden, we won\u2019t be anyone\u2019s colony,\u201d a defiant Maduro said with Saab at his side for a hero\u2019s welcome at the presidential palace.<\/p>\n

The release of Saab, long regarded by Washington as a bagman for Maduro, is a significant concession to the Venezuelan leader. Former President Donald Trump\u2019s administration held out Saab as a trophy, spending millions of dollars pursuing the Colombian-born businessman, at one point even deploying a Navy warship to the coast of West Africa following his arrest in Cape Verde to ward off a possible escape.<\/p>\n

U.S. officials said Biden\u2019s decision to grant him clemency was difficult but essential in order to bring home jailed Americans, a core administrative objective that in recent years has resulted in the release of criminals once seen as untradeable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese individuals have lost far too much precious time with their loved ones, and their families have suffered every day in their absence. I am grateful that their ordeal is finally over,\u201d President Joe Biden said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The agreement also resulted in the return to U.S. custody of Leonard Glenn Francis, the Malaysian owner of a ship-servicing company who is the central character in one of the largest bribery scandals in Pentagon history.<\/p>\n

But the exchange angered many in the Venezuelan opposition who have criticized the White House for standing by as Maduro has repeatedly outmaneuvered Washington after the Trump administration\u2019s campaign to topple him failed.<\/p>\n

Eyvin Hernandez, a Los Angeles County public defender arrested almost two years ago<\/a><\/span> along the Colombia-Venezuela border, was one of the U.S. detainees. After arriving in Texas Wednesday night, he thanked Biden \u201cbecause I know he made a difficult decision that will have a lot of pressure on him on Capitol Hill. But he got us home and we\u2019re with our families. And so we\u2019re incredibly grateful, all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hernandez added, \u201cHonestly, all you think about when you\u2019re in prison is how you didn\u2019t appreciate being free while you were free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright told reporters: \u201cI didn\u2019t know if I would ever make it out. And it\u2019s really scary to be in a place where you\u2019re used to having freedoms and you\u2019re locked into a cell. … It\u2019s a very challenging situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October, the White House eased sanctions on Venezuela\u2019s oil industry following promises by Maduro that he would level the playing field for the 2024 election, when he\u2019s looking to add six years to his decade-long, crisis-ridden rule. A Nov. 30 deadline has passed and so far Maduro has failed to reverse a ban blocking his chief opponent, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado<\/a><\/span>, from running for office.<\/p>\n

Biden told reporters earlier in the day that, so far, Maduro appeared to be \u201ckeeping his commitment on a free election.\u201d Republicans, echoing the sentiment of many in the U.S.-backed opposition, said Saab\u2019s release would only embolden Maduro to continue down an authoritarian path.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisgraceful decision,\u201d Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n

\n

The White House went to lengths to assure it won\u2019t hesitate to snap back sanctions if Venezuela\u2019s government fails to fulfill electoral commitments hammered out during negotiations with the opposition. A $15 million reward seeking Maduro\u2019s arrest to face drug trafficking charges in New York also remains in effect, it said.<\/p>\n

The agreement also requires Maduro\u2019s government to release 20 Venezuelan political prisoners, in addition to a close ally of Machado, and to suspend arrest warrants of three other Venezuelans.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has conducted several swaps with Venezuela<\/a><\/span> over the past few years, including one in October 2022 for seven Americans, including five oil executives<\/a><\/span> at Houston-based Citgo, in exchange for the release of two nephews of Maduro\u2019s wife jailed in the U.S. on narcotics charges. Like that earlier exchange, Wednesday\u2019s swap took place on an airstrip in the Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.<\/p>\n

Saab, who turns 52 on Thursday, hugged his wife and two young children as he descended the staircase of a private jet at the Simon Bolivar International Airport.<\/p>\n

It was a stark reversal from the scene on another tarmac, in Cape Verde, where he was arrested in 2020 during a fuel stop en route to Iran to negotiate oil deals on behalf of Maduro\u2019s government. The U.S. charges were conspiracy to commit money laundering tied to a bribery scheme that allegedly siphoned off $350 million through state contracts to build affordable housing. Saab was also sanctioned for allegedly running a scheme that stole hundreds of millions in dollars from food-import contracts at a time of widespread hunger mainly due to shortages in the South American country.<\/p>\n

After his arrest, Maduro\u2019s government said Saab was a special envoy on a humanitarian mission and was entitled to diplomatic immunity from criminal prosecution under international law.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is a miracle,\u201d Saab said, standing alongside Maduro at the neoclassical presidential palace in Caracas. \u201cI\u2019m proud to serve the Venezuelan people and this government, a loyal government, which, like me, never gives up. We will always triumph.\u201d<\/p>\n

Absent from Maduro\u2019s chest-thumping was any mention of Saab\u2019s secret meetings with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In a closed-door court hearing last year, Saab\u2019s lawyers said that he was for years helping that agency untangle corruption in Maduro\u2019s inner circle and had agreed to forfeit millions of dollars in illegal proceeds from corrupt state contracts.<\/p>\n

But the value of the information he shared with the Americans is unknown; some have suggested it may have all been a Maduro-authorized ruse to collect intelligence on the U.S. law enforcement activities in Venezuela. Whatever the case, Saab skipped out on a May 2019 surrender date and shortly afterward was charged by federal prosecutors in Miami.<\/p>\n

The deal is the latest concession by the Biden administration in the name of bringing home Americans jailed overseas, including a high-profile prisoner exchange last December when the U.S. government \u2014 over the objections of some Republicans in Congress and criticism from some law enforcement officials \u2014 traded Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for WNBA star Brittney Griner.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The swaps have raised concerns that the U.S. is incentivizing hostage-taking abroad and producing a false equivalence between Americans who are wrongfully detained abroad and foreigners who have been properly prosecuted and convicted in U.S courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened to the separation of powers?\u201d said Juan Cruz, who oversaw the White House\u2019s relations with Latin America while working at the National Security Council from 2017-19. \u201cNormally you would have to wait a defendant to be found guilty in order to be able to pardon him for a swap. This is an especially bad precedent with a Trump 2.0 potentially around the corner. It invites winking and nodding from the executive.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Biden administration officials say securing the freedom of wrongfully detained Americans and hostages abroad requires difficult dealmaking.<\/p>\n

Making this deal more palatable to the White House was Venezuela\u2019s willingness to return Francis.<\/p>\n

Nicknamed \u201cFat Leonard\u201d for his bulging 6-foot-3 frame, Francis was arrested in a San Diego hotel nearly a decade ago as part of a federal sting operation. Investigators say he bilked the U.S. military out of more than $35 million by buying off dozens of top-ranking Navy officers with booze, sex, lavish parties and other gifts.<\/p>\n

Three weeks before he faced sentencing in September 2022, Francis made an escape as stunning and brazen as the case itself as he snipped off his ankle monitor and disappeared. He was arrested by Venezuelan police attempting to board a flight from Caracas and has been in custody since.<\/p>\n

– Joshua Goodman, Eric Tucker and Regina Garcia Cano, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States freed a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in exchange for the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in the South American country and the return of a fugitive defense contractor known as \u201cFat Leonard\u201d who is at the center of a massive Pentagon bribery scandal, the Biden administration announced Wednesday. The American detainees were back on U.S.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":8391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/4a64692\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3000x1688+0+156\/resize\/1280x720!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F21%2Fef%2F683ab8244105a8a7edadc0c7a7cf%2Fap23355130686866.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"U.S., Venezuela Swap Prisoners: Maduro Ally for 10 Americans, Plus Fugitive Contractor \u2018Fat Leonard\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-governance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8390,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8389\/revisions\/8390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}