Six American citizens who had been held in Venezuela were freed following a meeting between President Nicolás Maduro and Richard Grenell, a senior U.S. official, according to the Trump administration.
“We are wheels up and headed home with these 6 American citizens,” he wrote. “They just spoke to [President Donald Trump] and they couldn’t stop thanking him.”
Grenell did not identify the former prisoners. His brief visit to Venezuela primarily focused on two key issues: Trump’s efforts to deport Venezuelans back to their home country, which currently does not accept them, and securing the release of detained Americans, White House officials said.
“Just been informed that we are bringing six hostages home from Venezuela. Thank you to Ric Grenell and my entire staff. Great job!” he wrote.
Trump told reporters on Friday that the meeting with the Venezuelan leader was not meant to give credibility to the Maduro presidency, which is not recognized by the United States and a number of other countries.
“We want to do something with Venezuela. I’ve been a very big opponent of Venezuela and Maduro,” the president said.
“They’ve treated us not so good, but they’ve treated, more importantly, the Venezuelan people, very badly.”
Grenell, who previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence under Trump, met with the Venezuelan leader just weeks after the start of his third term in office. His opponent, Edmundo González, and supporters have maintained that tally sheets gathered from the country’s last election show Maduro lost by a significant margin.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump’s special envoy to Latin America, provided context for Grenell’s visit during a conference call with journalists. He said that Grenell was in Venezuela on a “very specific mission” that does not detract from the Trump administration’s goal of restoring democracy in the South American nation.
Elliott Abrams, who served as special envoy to Venezuela and Iran during the first Trump administration, said, the timing of the meeting was “terrible.”
“A meeting with Maduro will be used by him to legitimize his rule and show that the Americans recognize him as president. If the purpose is to deliver a tough message about migration issues, the president could’ve done that himself. There was no need to send someone to Caracas,” Abrams said.
The dispute over Venezuela’s election results sparked nationwide protests last year, with over 2,200 people arrested during and after the demonstrations. Among those detained were up to 10 Americans, including a Navy SEAL, who were accused of plotting to destabilize the country.
The Trump administration has recently taken multiple actions to fulfill promises of cracking down on illegal immigration, including the recent revocation of a Biden administration decision that would have protected approximately 600,000 Venezuelans from deportation.
The ongoing crisis in the South American country has led more than 7.7 million Venezuelans fleeing since 2013 when the economy began to unravel and Maduro first took office. While most initially settled in Latin America and the Caribbean, the aftermath of the pandemic has led to an increase in migration to the United States.
A nationwide poll conducted by Venezuela-based research firm Delphos prior to last year’s presidential election showed that about a quarter of the population was considering emigrating if Maduro was reelected.
