President Donald Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell said on Friday that he returned to the United States with six American citizens, a surprise development after meeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.
Managers of the Trump administration had declared earlier Friday that one of the best objectives of Grenell for the visit was to guarantee the release of the Americans detained in the country, at a time when the Trump administration led a deportation and a anti-gang push in the United States.
Grenell did not name the six men, shown with him on an airplane in a photo he posted online. They were dressed in light blue outfits used by the Venezuelan penitentiary system.
“We are wheels and get home with these 6 American citizens,” Grenell posted on X. “They just talked to @realdonaldtrump and they could not stop thanking him.”
Trump applauded the move to his own position, saying that Grenell brought “six hostages to the house of Venezuela”.
We do not know exactly how many Americans were detained by Venezuela, but the Venezuelan officials spoke publicly at least nine years.
Maduro officials accused most of them of terrorism and said some were high -level “mercenaries”. The Venezuelan government regularly accuses members of the opposition and foreign detainees of conspiring with the United States to commit terrorism. US officials have always denied plots.
“The American hostages that stand in Venezuela … must be released immediately,” Mauricio Claver-Carone, the American Special Envoy for Latin America, said on Friday. “
At the end of 2023, the government of Venezuela released dozens of prisoners, including 10 Americans, after months of negotiations, while the United States released a close ally of Maduro.
Maduro told officials on Friday evening in an annual speech to the judiciary that the meeting between him and Grenell had been positive.
“There are things where we have concluded initial offers and when they are respected, new problems will open, hope it had been discussed with Grenell was reflected in what is communicated by the United States about the meeting.
“President Donald Trump, we made a first step, I hope it will continue,” said Maduro. “We would like it to continue.”
Maduro and Grenell also discussed migration and sanctions at the presidential palace, the Venezuelan government said on Friday in a statement earlier.
The white house press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier on Friday that Grenell was also concentrated on the guarantee of 400 members of the Gang Tren in Aragua in police custody in Venezuela.
An agreement on the deportations of Tren of Aragua was “non-negotiable,” said Claver-Carone.
The Venezuelan general prosecutor Tarek Saab said last week that the gang had been dismantled in Venezuela in 2023, but that he was willing to restart legal cooperation with the United States in order to extradite gang members.
Since he took power on January 20, Trump has launched a repression of radical immigration, initiating mass deportations.
In the United States, some 600,000 Venezuelans were eligible for expulsion alloys granted by the previous administration, but the American secretary for internal security, Kristi Noem, said that she would reduce the duration of the protections. She must decide on Saturday if she has to end them.
Grenell’s visit does not mean that the United States recognizes Maduro as a legitimate leader in Venezuela, Leavitt said.
The two countries have a recent history marked by relations, sanctions and accusations of coup d’etat.
But they share the interest of several bilateral problems pending, in particular a license allowing the major oil chevron to operate in Venezuela.
The administration of former US President Joe Biden reinforced large oil sanctions after declaring that Maduro had not kept promises for a free presidential election and then increased the awards for the capture or conviction of managers, including Maduro, leaving options limited to Trump for new penalties.
The victory supported by the government of Maduro during the July 2024 vote was challenged by the opposition, international observers and many countries, including the United States.
The Maduro government has always rejected the sanctions of the United States and others, saying that they are illegitimate measures that are equivalent to an “economic war” designed to paralyze Venezuela.
Financial Times reported on Friday that Chevron was trying to protect a special American license allowing him to operate in Venezuela.
Chevron’s chief executive officer Mike Wirth told the newspaper that the company would join the White House, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the license should be reconsidered and Trump said United States would probably stop buying oil in Venezuela.
