Miami: A senior US diplomat quietly traveled to Venezuela this week to meet with imprisoned Americans as part of ongoing efforts for the safe release of the men, which the Biden administration believes could be a deal by a top US adversary. Is. The chips are being kept as is, the Associated Press has learned.
Roger Carstens, the president’s special envoy for hostage affairs and the government’s top hostage negotiator, arrived in Caracas on a chartered flight on Tuesday evening and returned home on Friday on a previously unreported visit.
It is unclear who he met in the heavily sanctioned socialist administration of President Nicolas Maduro.
But it was the first known face-to-face outreach by a top US official since the Trump administration closed the US embassy in Caracas in March 2019, recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. . , Since then, relations between the two countries have become increasingly hostile, with the US government imposing tough oil sanctions on the country and targeting top officials with criminal indictments, something Maduro likened to a “soft coup”.
“It was a good thing to see people, to show them that their government cares. It was also positive to report back to their families that I had seen them,” Carsten told the AP, adding that he was grateful to Maduro’s aides for inviting him to do what he described as a “welfare check.”
Travel time is likely to bark on the heels of a gubernatorial election considered deeply undemocratic by the Biden administration after several opposition candidates were barred from running.
“For fear of the voice and vote of the Venezuelan people, the regime completely skewed the process of determining the outcome of this election long before any ballots were cast,” the State Department said after the November 21 vote.
The Maduro government, which in the past has not hesitated to publicize peace campaigns by key US negotiators, has suddenly gone silent about the visit. Carstens confirmed the tour late Friday afternoon.
During his visit, he is allowed to investigate a group of six American oil executives lodged in the infamous El Helicoded prison in Caracas, which turned once-modernist shopping malls into housing facilities for the government’s top opponents. gone.
A person familiar with the trip described Carsten’s jailhouse meeting with six Houston-based Citgo executives, which lasted about 90 minutes, as highly emotional. Carsten told the prisoners that he had discussed his case with Maduro’s government officials while in Caracas, but declined to tell whom.
The man and several others spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to have details of the meeting because they were not authorized to discuss Carsten’s visit.
Tomeu Waddell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cárdenas and Jose Pereira were chased by masked security agents after breaking into a Caracas conference room in 2017. The men were taken to Venezuela to attend a meeting just before Thanksgiving that year. At the headquarters of the company’s parent, state-owned oil company PDVSA.
Last year, six were convicted of embezzlement in a trial marred by delays and irregularities. He was sentenced to between 8 and 13 years in prison for a never-executed proposal to refinance billions of dollars in oil company bonds. At the time, Maduro accused him of “treason”. They all pleaded not guilty and the US believes they were wrongfully detained.
After being given a house arrest, he was swiftly thrown back into prison on October 16, 2021, the same day a close aide of Maduro was extradited to the US by the African nation of Cape Verde to face money laundering charges .
While in El Helicoded prison, Carsten also met Luke Denman and Airan Berry – two former Green Berets arrested in connection with a failed raid aimed at taking down Maduro from Colombia. He also conducted a health checkup with former US Marine Matthew Heath, who is being held in a separate facility on unrelated charges.
Family members of Americans jailed in Venezuela and other relatives of hostages and detainees complained in a letter to the Biden administration that they felt the release of their loved ones was not being given enough priority.
Jose Pereira’s son John Pereira, who weeks ago was taken to a private clinic for emergency treatment for a cardiac condition, told the AP at the time that “our feeling is that they can do more.”
President Joe Biden has so far been less public on the issue of hostage cases than his predecessor, Donald Trump, who over the four years made several high-profile releases around the world, giving officials plenty of leeway to pursue negotiations.
Trump also invited hostages and detainees who were freed under his watch to appear with him in a video broadcast during the Republican National Convention. It also includes Joshua Holt, a Utah man who spent two years in a Caracas prison after moving to Venezuela to marry his fellow Mormon, whom he met online.
Although no Americans were freed during the current visit, any future releases would represent a significant victory for Carsten, a retired US Army Special Forces officer who was a rare holdover from the Trump administration. Last month, journalist Danny Fenster was released after nearly six months in prison in military-ruled Myanmar.
His release was negotiated by former US diplomat Bill Richardson, who had in the past traveled to Caracas seeking the release of Americans.
Richardson described Carsten’s visit to Caracas as an “important” development.
“Speaking directly with those who are suppressing Americans is important,” he said in a statement to the AP. “It doesn’t guarantee success, but I applaud Roger Carsten for taking the first step, taking these efforts to the families of our captives, and for allowing this humanitarian gesture to happen to the Maduro government.” “
At least 61 Americans have been wrongfully detained or taken hostage overseas, according to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, named after James W. Foley, a freelance journalist killed by a Daesh group in Syria. has gone. is kept.
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