A Utah man jailed in Venezuela on weapons charges nearly two years ago was released Saturday after a U.S. senator pressed for his freedom in a surprise meeting with President Nicolas Maduro.
“We are grateful to all who participated in this miracle,” Joshua Holt’s family said in a statement.
President Donald Trump said Holt and his family were expected at the White House on Saturday evening.
“Good news about the release of the American hostage from Venezuela. … The great people of Utah will be very happy!” Trump said in a tweet.
The 26-year-old Holt traveled to Venezuela in June 2016 to marry a woman he met online while he was looking for Spanish-speaking Mormons to improve his Spanish.
His release came after Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met with Maduro on Friday — the outcome of months of secret, backchannel talks about Holt between one of the senator’s aides and close allies of the Venezuelan president.
Holt’s release looked unlikely a week ago, when he appeared in a clandestinely shot video railing against the Maduro government and saying his life was threatened in a prison riot. In retaliation, socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, a powerful ally of Maduro, said on state television that Holt was the CIA’s top spy in Latin America.
It’s not clear if Holt’s release portends a thawing of relations between the two normally hostile governments. The Trump administration has threatened crippling oil sanctions on Venezuela for Maduro’s decision to go forward with presidential elections last week…
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