Venezuela frees U.S. citizen after 2 years

In this image provided by the Holt family, Josh Holt waits to board a flight Saturday with his wife, Thamara Caleno, and her daughter at the airport in Caracas, Venezuela.
In this image provided by the Holt family, Josh Holt waits to board a flight Saturday with his wife, Thamara Caleno, and her daughter at the airport in Caracas, Venezuela.

WASHINGTON -- Josh Holt, a U.S. citizen who had traveled to Venezuela to marry a woman he met online, was released on Saturday after two years in a Caracas jail and has returned to the United States.

Holt, a Utah native, was released along with his now-wife, Thamara Caleno, according to a statement from Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on Saturday. Holt had been accused by Venezuelan officials of stockpiling weapons and grenades in public housing, and his incarceration had become a major flash point in relations between Caracas and Washington.

"Over the last two years I've worked with two presidential administrations, countless diplomatic contacts, ambassadors from all over the world, a network of contacts in Venezuela, and President [Nicolas] Maduro himself," Hatch said in a statement. "I could not be more honored to be able to reunite Josh with his sweet, long-suffering family in Riverton."

Holt and his wife arrived Saturday evening at Washington Dulles International Airport for a tearful reunion with his parents, Laurie and Jason Holt. The family was then welcomed to the White House by President Donald Trump.

"I'm just overwhelmed with gratitude," said an emotional Holt, sitting next to Trump in the Oval Office. "Those two years, they were a very, very, very difficult two years. Not really the great vacation that I was looking for. ... I'm just so grateful for what you guys have done."

Trump praised Holt's bravery and thanked the lawmakers who lobbied for his release, as well as Holt's parents. To Holt, Trump said: "You've gone through a lot. More than most people could endure."

When he departed the Caracas airport earlier in the day, Holt said the ordeal had left him "exhausted."

The release comes amid a shaky period in U.S.-Venezuela relations and just days after Maduro won re-election in a vote that has been widely denounced as illegitimate. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., traveled to Caracas on Friday and was shown on state television shaking hands with the president.

On Saturday, Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez told journalists in Caracas that Holt's release was the product of "months" of "fruitful meetings" between Maduro and U.S. lawmakers. A day earlier, he described the encounter between Maduro and Corker as "a very good meeting; it is good news for the Venezuelan people."

Hatch thanked Corker for his "pivotal efforts," according to The Associated Press. Corker's office did not respond to a request for comment, but Corker in a statement praised the work of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Caleb McCarry, a Corker foreign policy aide who accompanied Corker on the trip.

Hatch was officially notified Friday that Holt's release was being finalized, according to an official familiar with the events, and Corker had kept in close contact with Hatch, who had spoken several times with Maduro over the past few months about Holt's situation.

"In the end, Corker was the closer," the official said.

Holt's release came as Maduro appears to be on a public relations offensive after the widely condemned elections last week, seeking to make gestures toward his international and domestic critics. On Friday, the government freed 20 political prisoners in the interior state of Zulia. Yet the Venezuelan human rights group Foro Penal called the effort simply part of a new "revolving door policy" in which some prisoners were being released even as others were being detained. One of the directors of the group said at least 14 dissidents had been jailed last week.

A Mormon missionary from Utah, Holt -- called the "Gringo Agent" in Venezuela -- was an American in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was arrested by Venezuelan security forces in June 2016, days after he married Venezuelan resident Thamara Caleno.

Venezuelan officials, using evidence that Holt called invented, accused him of being a U.S. agent masterminding a plan to destabilize Venezuela by amassing explosives and guns.

Holt was thrown into Venezuela's notorious Helicoide prison, a compound filled with political prisoners who claim to have been subjected to torture and held without fair trials.

Both Holt and U.S. officials have denied all charges. On May 16, Holt issued dramatic videos from his prison cell after a riot.

Demands for Holt's release were issued by senior U.S. politicians, and Todd Robinson, then the chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, showed up at Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Ministry in Caracas to demand information about his safety.

At the time, Venezuelan authorities declined to receive him.

On Tuesday -- two days after Maduro won re-election -- Robinson and the U.S. deputy chief of mission, Brian Naranjo, were expelled from the country in a sharp escalation of diplomatic tensions.

Information for this article was contributed by Seung Min Kim, Anthony Faiola and Rachelle Krygier of The Washington Post; and by Joshua Goodman and Catherine Lucey of The Associated Press.

A Section on 05/27/2018

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