Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The US has released a close ally of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in exchange for 10 Americans jailed in the Latin American country, part of a broader diplomatic effort by the White House to secure election reforms in exchange for sanctions relief.
Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman and Maduro’s main dealmaker, was extradited to the US in 2021 after being charged with transferring $350mn from Venezuela as part of a scheme to bribe its government officials.
In return, Venezuela has released 10 Americans, including six who were classified as wrongfully detained. Caracas also agreed to release 20 Venezuelan political prisoners, officials said.
As part of the arrangement, Venezuela agreed to arrest and return Malaysian defence contractor Leonard Francis, known as Fat Leonard, to the US. Leonard, the mastermind of a massive Navy bribery scheme who pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors, escaped house arrest and fled to Venezuela earlier this year before he was due to be sentenced.
“Reuniting wrongfully detained Americans with their loved ones has been a priority for my administration since day one,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement. “As is the return to the United States of fugitives from justice.”
Qatar facilitated talks between the Biden administration and Maduro in the hope of brokering an agreement under which Venezuela’s president would agree to hold free and fair elections and release political prisoners in return for US sanctions relief.
The Qataris served as a go-between as requested by both sides “to explore areas where the relations can be improved”, according to a person briefed on the talks, who described them as “productive”.
The move comes amid a broader effort by Washington to reset relations with Venezuela, after efforts backed by the previous Trump administration to topple Maduro failed. The US relaxed sanctions on Caracas in October after Maduro’s government agreed to hold fair elections next year. But the White House said earlier this month that it would pause sanctions relief unless the country made progress on its promise to release wrongfully detained Americans and Venezuelan political prisoners.
Washington in October issued a six-month general license authorising US transactions with Venezuela’s oil and gas sector and another one permitting transactions with state gold mining company Minerven. The Biden administration also moved to allow secondary-market trading of Venezuelan sovereign bonds.
The agreement “opens the doors for us to continue to engage in dialogue so that when Venezuela holds elections next year that they’re competitive and inclusive and that will allow Venezuela to really determine the future of the country”, a senior US administration official said. “We’ve established a solid foundation for us to build upon, and we will continue the dialogue in the months ahead.”
Additional reporting by Andrew England
Read the full article here
