Venezuela frees US citizens in the last exchange with Trump Administration | Donald Trump News

A citizen of the United States was brought to the USA in Venezuela after almost six months.

The family of the US Air Force veteran Joseph St. Clair confirmed his release on Tuesday after his detention in November last year.

“This message came suddenly and we are still processing them, but we are overwhelmed by joy and gratitude,” said St. Clair's parents Scott and Patti in an explanation.

The envoy of US President Donald Trump for special missions, Richard Grenell, later said on social media that he had met with Venezuelan officials on the Caribbean island of Antigua to negotiate the release.

Grenell attributed the freedom of St. Clair Trump's “America First” platform.

“Joe St. Clair is back in America,” he wrote. “I met Venezuelan officials in a neutral country today to negotiate a first strategy in America. This is only possible because [Trump] puts the Americans the first place. “”

Referring to anonymous sources who are familiar with the negotiations, Reuters news agency reported that Grenell discussed the case of St. Clair on Tuesday with Jorge Rodriguez, the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela and an ally of President Nicolas Maduro.

Reuters and another news agency, Bloomberg, both stated that a deal was hit to extend a license for the US oil company Chevron by 60 days in Venezuela.

The Trump government had previously announced that it would revoke the license in February on the basis that Venezuela had not confirmed its commitment to fair elections. The license should end on May 27th.

Every extension will probably need the approval of the US Ministry of State and the US Ministry of Finance.

The South American country is based on oil as a column of its economy. But since the mid -2010s Venezuela has experienced a economic crisis that has even exceeded basic deliveries such as food and medicine about what some families can do.

According to the United Nations, this has triggered an exodus of almost 7.9 million people from Venezuela in combination with alleged political repression.

In 2023, Venezuela committed to election reforms as part of the Barbado Agreement, a deal that the United States welcomed. The then US President Joe Biden attracted the oil industry in Venezuela in the oil industry according to the agreement.

But Venezuela's presidential election on July 28, 2024 was widely criticized for his lack of transparency. While Maduro and his allies claimed that he had won a third term, the electoral authorities did not provide evidence of his victory.

Instead, the opposition coalition published the votes that demonstrably showed that its candidate had won from a landslide. This led to widespread protests and a fatal approach to law enforcement.

During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump had followed a “maximum pressure” campaign on the government of Maduro and even offered a lot of US dollars for information that led to the arrest of the Venezuelan leader.

However, critics pointed out that Trump may need Venezuela's cooperation to carry out his goal of “mass deportation” during his second term.

Since his return in January in January, Trump has signaled the willingness to negotiate with Maduro. At the end of January he even sent Grenell to meet Maduro in person in the capital of Caracas. Part of Grenell's guideline was to ensure that all the arrested Americans were brought back home in the country.

When Grenell left the country, he revealed that he returned with six Americans who had previously been imprisoned in Venezuela.

In March, US Foreign Minister Marco Rubio estimated that nine Americans remained in Venezuela's care.

For his part, Venezuela has started to accept deportation flights from the United States, although in the past it has refused to accept migrants that have been removed from the United States.

The St. Clair family said the military veteran was a language specialist who was looking for treatment for post -traumatic stress disorders in South America.