“The Biden administration has secured a deal with Venezuela that would see the release of one of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s close allies from U.S. custody in exchange for at least eight Americans held in Venezuela, including some who are designated as wrongfully detained,” reported CBS News. The wrongfully detained Americans served as hostages that Venezuela could trade for high-ranking criminals closely tied to Venezuela’s oppressive Marxist regime and Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolas Maduro. The close ally of Maduro to be released is Alex Saab, “the mastermind of Maduro’s kleptocracy network” that has looted Venezuela and left its people in poverty despite Venezuela’s massive oil riches. The U.S. previously released “Maduro’s nephews” despite their grave crimes, notes Daniel De Martino.
It is not surprising that Venezuela wrongfully detained American nationals, because the Biden and Obama administrations have repeatedly rewarded hostile foreign countries for detaining Americans, by paying huge ransoms for them. Earlier this year, the Biden administration agreed to pay a $6 billion ransom to Iran in exchange for the release of five American hostages. “The United States and Iran … reached an agreement to win the freedom of five imprisoned Americans in exchange for several jailed Iranians and eventual access to about $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue,” reported the New York Times. That would be a colossal $1.2 billion per hostage released — a massive incentive for hostile nations to seize Americans to hold them for ransom. The House of Representatives voted to block the release of the $6 billion to Iran, but Iran says it is still getting the money.
This is not the first hostage deal with Venezuela. As CBS News notes, “The U.S. and Venezuelan governments have previously exchanged prisoners, including in October 2022, when seven wrongfully detained Americans were released from Venezuela in a prisoner swap for two nephews of Maduro’s wife. Five of the Americans were members of the so-called ‘Citgo 6,’ a group of oil executives from the Houston-based Citgo refining company. They had been held in Venezuela for five years. Last December, the U.S. agreed to swap a Russian arms dealer known as the ‘Merchant of Death’ to secure the release of WNBA player Britney Griner, who was detained at a Russian airport in February and later pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the discovery of cannabis-derived oil cartridges in her luggage.”
Earlier, there was an “infamous deal made by President Barack Obama” to release “five high-ranking Taliban commanders.” in exchange for a “deserter from the U.S. military” held by the Taliban, notes the Amarillo Globe-News.
Paying ransoms for hostages makes America look weak, and encourages more acts of aggression by Iran, Venezuela, and Iran’s proxies. After Biden agreed to release $6 billion to Iran for the release of 5 Americans, Iran’s ally Hamas launched an attack that killed over 1000 civilians in neighboring Israel, including at least 32 Americans. Iran gave Hamas weapons it used in its attack that killed those Americans. The Biden administration also released millions of dollars to the Hamas-controlled government of the Gaza strip before the attack by Hamas. The Iran hostage deal seems to have emboldened Iran’s proxies, like the Iranian-funded militia that rules most of Yemen; it recently took aim at the West, by attacking ships in the Red Sea, and seizing a Japanese ship, to keep vital cargo from passing through the Suez Canal.
Russia seized two American journalists followed the Biden administration’s 2022 hostage deal with Russia, in which it released a “merchant of death” responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. In October it seized yet another American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, who Russia wrongly holds along with the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich. As The Guardian notes, Russia’s “espionage charges against” Evan Gershkovich “are widely viewed as spurious and an effort to blackmail Washington into releasing Russian prisoners, including spies and financial criminals with ties to powerful figures in Russia.”
