The United States released a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela on Wednesday in exchange for 10 jailed Americans and a defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard,” who is at the center of one of the US Navy’s biggest corruption cases.
Maduro’s government will also release 20 Venezuelan political prisoners and Roberto Abdul, a Venezuelan opposition leader, US officials said.
The Americans freed on Wednesday included six people deemed “wrongfully detained” by the Biden administration, a designation that suggests the US government sees them as the equivalent of political hostages. They arrived in Texas on Wednesday evening, an administration official said.
“These individuals have lost so much precious time with their loved ones, and their families have suffered every day in their loss,” President Biden said in a statement announcing the exchange.
The swap comes as the Biden administration tries to improve relations with the authoritarian government in Caracas. The United States is increasingly interested in improving economic conditions in Venezuela to try to address the arrival of large numbers of Venezuelan migrants at the southern US border.
The United States also recently began deportation flights to Venezuela and lifted some sanctions after the Maduro administration agreed to take interim steps toward free and fair elections.
“It looks like Maduro, for now, is making good on his promise of a free election,” Mr. Biden told reporters on Wednesday. “But it’s not over yet. We still have a long way to go.”
US officials submitted the swap as necessary to reunite Americans with their families in the United States. It came after months of negotiations between top US and Venezuelan officials, facilitated by Qatar, American officials said.
But for some in Venezuela, the deal was a win for Mr. Maduro because it resulted in the release of Alex Saab, accused by the United States of “earning from hunger” by Venezuelans. Many Venezuelans say Mr. Saab has become synonymous with the worst abuses of the Maduro government.
A Colombian businessman and financial fixer for Mr. Maduro, Mr. Saab was indicted in 2019 in connection with a bribery scheme that siphoned an estimated $350 million from a Venezuelan government housing project.
Mr. Saab, who arrived in Venezuela on Wednesday afternoon, is one of several officials and businessmen linked to Maduro who have been indicted by the US government in recent years, along with Mr. Maduro himself.
He was extradited from the West African island nation of Cape Verde to the United States in 2021 to face money-laundering charges, one of Mr. Maduro to be taken into American custody. He is not guilty.
Washington accused Mr. Saab of involvement in a scheme in which he and others embezzled large sums of government funds meant to feed the hungry in Venezuela.
Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who has criticized the White House’s approach to Venezuela, called the exchange “unconscionable.”
But some foreign policy experts said securing the release of the 10 Americans was a diplomatic win for the Biden administration. Christopher Sabatini, a senior research fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, a research group in London, said it is never good to negotiate with “criminal regimes.”
“Understandably, some would call it a sellout,” he said, “but that’s diplomacy.”
Mr. Maduro’s government has maintained that the detention of Mr. Saab is against the law, saying he is a diplomatic envoy and cannot be prosecuted.
Under the terms of the agreement, Venezuela also agreed to return to the United States former defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis, known as Fat Leonard. Mr. Francis, a Malaysian businessman, is at the center of a fraud and bribery case that resulted in federal criminal charges against more than 30 US Navy officials and defense contractors, according to the Justice Department.
He was scheduled to be sentenced last year but escaped house arrest in September 2022 by cutting off his ankle monitor and fleeing to Venezuela. Two weeks later, Interpol agents intercepted him at the airport in Caracas, trying to board a flight to Russia. He faces up to 25 years in prison and has agreed to forfeit $35 million in gains.
More than two dozen people have pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme. They admitted receiving millions of dollars in luxury travel, accommodation, food or prostitutes from Mr Francis in exchange for lucrative military contracts for his Singapore-based business, Glenn Defense Marine Asia.
Prosecutors said Mr. Francis’ gifts to Navy officials also included more than $500,000 in cash, Cuban cigars, Kobe beef and Spanish suckling pigs. He also threw lavish parties for senior officers at luxury hotels in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
In fleeing Venezuela, Mr. Francis may have believed that years of hostile diplomacy between Mr. Maduro and the United States would protect him from extradition. Mr. Maduro has a cordial working relationship with Russia, and for months has considered a visit to meet President Vladimir V. Putin.
But the American and Venezuelan governments raised cautious hopes of easing tensions when they agreed to a deal in October that lifted some economic sanctions against Venezuela.
In October of last year, Mr. Biden agreed to grant clemency to two nieces of the first lady of Venezuela to secure the release of seven Americans.
Among the Americans released Wednesday were Jerrel Kenemore and Eyvin Hernandez, who were arrested in March 2022; Joseph Cristella, who was arrested in Venezuela in September of that year; and Savoi Wright, a businessman from California whose family said he was wrongfully imprisoned after the FBI learned in October that he had been arrested. The United States has designated them all as wrongfully detained.
Senior US officials declined to reveal details about the other Americans freed, but said the exchange meant that all Americans believed to be wrongly imprisoned in Venezuela had been freed.
Mr. Wright’s family released a statement Wednesday saying they were grateful to the Biden administration.
“The past few months have been some of the most difficult of our lives, and we are pleased that this ordeal has come to an end,” the statement said. “We are forever grateful.”
Isayen Herrera contributed reporting from Caracas, Venezuela.
