Nicolás Maduro scores a personal victory with the exchange of his 'narco-nephews' for US hostages

• USA-Venezuela Biden exchanges the two 'narco-nephews' of Maduro for seven Americans trapped in Venezuela

The Miraflores Palace lived this Sunday a long-awaited party for years.

Thanks to the bilateral negotiation that has been held with Washington for seven months, as soon as the invasion of Ukraine broke out, the two famous 'narco-nephews' of the presidential couple have regained their freedom despite the 18-year prison sentence that weighed on their shoulders for conspiracy to introduce into the US 800 kilos of cocaine.

So much was the presidential enthusiasm that Maduro took advantage of the situation to start Christmas, by surprise.

"Let us give thanks to God and to life for being born in the most beautiful country in the world. Happiness to everyone!" cried the "son of Chavez", the main beneficiary of the agreements reached with Washington, which in addition to freeing his partner's nephews, fostered by him since they were young, have obtained for another of Cilia's nephews, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, a kind of amnesty from Washington so that he can return to his millionaire businesses.

Malpica served as national treasurer and presidential commissioner before being sanctioned by the US.

The Joe Biden administration has preferred to give in and deliver to Caracas Efraín Campo Flores (36 years old) and Franqui Flores de Freitas (37), nephews of the "first revolutionary combatant" and wife of Maduro, Cilia Flores, captured in 2015 in a movie operation by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which arrested them by surprise in Haiti and transferred them to New York thanks to an express extradition.

In exchange, the US president has obtained the freedom of seven US citizens held hostage by Maduro in the Creole country: the five directors of Citgo, the US subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), and citizens Osmar Khan and Matthew Heath, imprisoned by the Maduro government.

The oil directors were captured after falling into the trap set by the revolution and the rest of the US prisoners were victims of different kidnappings with the obvious objective of becoming bargaining chips.

Maduro even has four aces up his sleeve to now get the freedom of Colombian millionaire Alex Saab, designated as his figurehead and main international financial operator of the revolution: among the 240 political prisoners held in his dungeons are the two former green berets who participated in the failed landings of 2019 and two other citizens who are accused of entering the South American country without authorization with the intention of conspiring against the Government.

"We still have more work to do

," acknowledged Antony Blinken, secretary of state in the Biden administration.

Revolutionary propaganda has been very careful to link the Maduro/Flores duo to drug trafficking and for years avoided highlighting the family ties between the four.

The strategy has continued in the last few hours, with the Bolivarian media determined to sell public opinion that the two almost anonymous young men were protagonists of a revenge of the empire.

In the end, it is a transcendental personal victory for Maduro and an operation with internal revenues for Biden, but above all a huge setback for the democratic struggle in Venezuela, in which impunity has once again triumphed and leaves it out of the game. , once again, to the democratic opposition and the government in charge of Juan Guaidó.

"Once again the Maduro dictatorship shows that he is not interested in Venezuelans, but simply in the benefit of his surroundings by asking drug traffickers in exchange for hostages," Guaidó complained.

"

: energy and sanctions, humanitarian package, opposition and elections in 2024 and Colombia. Everything in a global and regional context that has changed, nothing is isolated," analyst Michael Penfold revealed.

The pressure of US public opinion already forced the presence in Caracas last March of Roger Carstens, Biden's special envoy for hostage issues, during the negotiations between the two governments and the energy crisis as a backdrop.

"When the exchange of Trevor Reed (former Marine released by a Russian pilot in the US) took place, the pressure increased. Biden has received a lot of public pressure to do whatever was necessary to get them out of Venezuela," María Puerta Riera confirmed for EL MUNDO , professor of American government in Florida.

Heath's odyssey, who even suffered a suicide attempt last June after spending two years in Venezuelan prisons, had especially moved Americans.

"

, and that in the case of the United States have the peculiarity of transcending the typical polarization with the electorate of South Florida. Despite the fear that exists in some sectors of public opinion in that Venezuelan electorate in the US and in Venezuela, the lifting of sanctions that Maduro is pursuing has not materialized. That should indicate to us that this step, which is part of an incremental process, is not going to take place with the speed to which Maduro aspires. So, we are facing a complex process where we must consider the void that the opposition is leaving, absent from these approaches," said Puerta, who also wondered about the ongoing negotiation and who represents the opposition in it.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• Venezuela

• USA

• THE WORLD

• Colombia

• Juan Guaido

• Ukraine

• Joe Biden

• Nicholas Maduro