The president of the United States, Joe Biden, recognized this Wednesday that his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, is carrying out the measures to which he committed in the past to promote democratic reform in the South American country.
This was stated by the US president upon disembarking from the Air Force 1 presidential plane in the city of Milwaukee, as reported by the White House, which, however, has not published verbatim statements from the president.
The president would have assured that “it seems that Maduro, so far, is fulfilling his commitment to free elections,” and would have added that the prospects for a prisoner exchange “look good,” as reported by the Bloomberg news agency.
The Biden Administration already announced in October the temporary lifting of some sanctions imposed on Venezuela after Chavismo and the opposition reached an agreement in principle for the holding of transparent and guaranteed elections in 2024.
Despite speaking out about Venezuela, President Biden has not commented on the possible release of Alex Saab, considered Maduro’s front man and detained in US territory since 2020.
In recent days there has been speculation that Washington and Caracas could have reached an agreement for the release of Saab in exchange for several of the Americans detained in Venezuelan territory.
In fact, the spokesman for the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, has been asked about this issue, although the senior US official has refused to confirm this information. “I cannot confirm these reports, I will not go into further details,” he said.
For his part, the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, addressed this Wednesday the situation of Americans detained abroad and, also speaking about Venezuela, announced that there will soon be “good news.”
Blinken has stressed that the Biden Administration “has no other priority” than trying to free all US citizens who may be in danger abroad, something that “is also a priority when it comes to Venezuela.”
“In the last two years we have secured the release of nearly three dozen Americans who were arbitrarily detained. It is work that continues every day wherever Americans are unjustly detained in the world,” he said.
Saab was arrested in June 2020 during a stopover in Cape Verde and later extradited to the United States, where he remains awaiting trial. Venezuela has denounced that the arrest was illegal because he had immunity as Maduro’s special envoy.
