On Saturday, US President Joe Biden announced the release of Venezuelan 7 American prisoners "after years of unjustified detention", and Caracas confirmed the release of two Venezuelans from American prisons.
"Today, after years of unjustified detention in Venezuela, we bring home Jorge Toledo, Tomoe Fadel, Illyrio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano, Jose Pereira, Matthew Heath and Osman Khan," Biden said in a statement.
The US President affirmed his "firm commitment" to releasing any American who is imprisoned or imprisoned unjustly in all parts of the world.
Biden did not mention the prisoner exchange, although the two announcements were issued almost simultaneously.
A senior White House official said that the seven Americans are "currently on their way to their homes and families in the United States."
In turn, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken welcomed the release of the seven American nationals "unjustly detained" in Venezuela, and said in a tweet that his country would not stop working until all American detainees around the world returned to their homes.
We welcome the long overdue release and return of seven US nationals, wrongfully detained in Venezuela.
We will never stop working until all US nationals held hostage or wrongfully detained around the world are home.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) October 1, 2022
And the first five detainees whose names Biden announced were working for the oil company "Citgo". They are 4 Americans, born in Venezuela, and a Venezuelan permanently residing in the United States. They were convicted of corruption and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 8 to 13 years.
Since their arrest in 2017, they have been living with the volatile relations between Caracas and Washington.
As for the other two Americans released, they were arrested separately.
humanitarian reasons
On the other hand, the Venezuelan government announced - in a statement - that "following several conversations that took place on the fifth of March with representatives of the US government, two Venezuelan youths who were unfairly imprisoned in this country were released."
The statement also confirmed the release of a group of Americans "on humanitarian grounds."
No party has announced the identities of the released Venezuelans, but the Washington Post reported that they were Frankie Flores and his cousin Efrain Campo, who are cousins to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's wife.
These two Venezuelans were arrested in Haiti and then extradited to the United States, where they were convicted of drug trafficking.