Six American citizens, unjustly detained by Venezuela’s socialist Maduro regime between September and October, returned home this weekend after negotiations led by President Donald Trump.
While U.S. authorities have not disclosed the identities of the six Americans at press time, CBS News identified one of them as 62-year-old David Estrella, while the Spanish newspaper El País identified three of the other six men as Aaron Barret Logan, Gregory David Werber, and David Guttember Guillaume.
Estrella and Logan were arrested by the Maduro regime in September alongside U.S. Navy Seal member Wilmer José Castañeda for their alleged involvement in a dubious plot to assassinate socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro. According to the Maduro regime, which did not present evidence to substantiate the accusations, both the CIA and Spain’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) were behind the purported murder plot. According to El País, Castañeda remains imprisoned at press time.
Werber and Guillaume were detained in October alongside two other American nationals identified at the time by Venezuelan Interior Minister and wanted drug lord Diosdado Cabello as Jonathan Pagan González and Jorge Marcelo Vargas. The Maduro regime accused the four Americans detained in October of being part of a broader “mercenary” group linked to the purported CIA-CNI plot against Maduro. That group allegedly intended to “hack” and “sabotage” Venezuelan state infrastructure, attack Maduro and other regime officials, and take other “terrorist” actions.
Similarly to the group of Americans detained in September, the Maduro regime did not present evidence to substantiate any of the accusations against the four Americans. It remains publicly unclear if González and Vargas are the other two American men who were recently released.
The release of the six Americans came as the result of negotiations held by Richard Grenell, President Trump’s Presidential Envoy for Special Missions. Grenell traveled to Caracas on Friday and met with dictator Maduro. Grenell’s negotiations resulted in not just the release of the six American men, but also the Maduro regime accepting U.S. deportation flights of illegal Venezuelan migrants — including members of the Tren de Aragua transnational criminal organization.
Unlike negotiations held by the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden, the United States did not resort to engaging in a prisoner swap deal with Venezuela for the release of American nationals.
In October 2022, the Biden administration engaged in a prisoner swap with the Maduro regime that saw the release of seven unjustly detained Americans: Five of the men belonged to the “CITGO 6,” a group of six oil executives unjustly detained by the Maduro regime in 2017. The other two American men were identified as U.S. Marine corporal Matthew Heath and Osman Khan, who were unjustly detained by the Maduro regime between 2020 and 2022.
Both Heath and Khan filed a lawsuit against Maduro at Miami federal court in January, accusing the socialist regime of subjecting them to acts of torture such as “waterboarding, electrocution, threats of rape with a nightstick,” and “mind-altering medications.”
In return, President Joe Biden released Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, Nicolás Maduro’s convicted drug-trafficking nephews commonly known as the narcosobrinos (“narco-nephews”).
The Biden administration held another prisoner swap deal with the Maduro regime in December 2023 that saw the release of a group of roughly roughly ten unjustly arrested Americans in exchange for Alex Saab, Maduro’s top money launderer in exchange for roughly ten unjustly arrested Americans.
According to the Biden administration, Saab’s release would allegedly help curb the large flow of Venezuelan migrants entering the United States by addressing the “root causes of migration.” Saab, who was given a “hero’s welcome” upon his return to Caracas, was appointed as Maduro’s new Industries Minister in October.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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