After high-level meeting, six Americans detained in Venezuela are released
Trump informed reporters on Friday that the purpose of the meeting was not to give legitimacy to Maduro’s presidency, which is not acknowledged by the United States.
Six American citizens who had been imprisoned in Venezuela were released following a meeting between President Nicolás Maduro and Richard Grenell, a senior U.S. official, as per 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 reveal the identities of the former captives. His brief trip to Venezuela primarily focused on two key issues: Trump’s endeavors to repatriate Venezuelans back to their home country, which is currently unwilling to accept them, and securing the release of detained Americans, White House officials noted.
“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.
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Trump clarified to reporters on Friday that the meeting with the Venezuelan leader was not intended to validate the Maduro presidency, which is not acknowledged by the United States and several 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 collected 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 take away from the Trump administration’s objective of restoring democracy in the South American nation.
