The United States releases Alex Saab in exchange for several Americans being held by the Venezuelan dictatorship

Joe Biden’s government released Colombian businessman Alex Saab, accused of acting as a middleman for Nicolás Maduro. In exchange, the Venezuelan regime released several Americans being held as political prisoners, according to the Associated Press.

"Alex Saab, who was arrested on a U.S. warrant for money laundering in 2020, was released from custody Wednesday. In exchange, Maduro will free some, if not all, of the roughly dozen U.S. citizens who remain imprisoned in Venezuela, according to a person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity," AP reviewed.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) included Saab in its investigations on July 25, 2019 for his participation in a large-scale corruption network in order to obtain valuable commercial contracts with the Venezuelan government. The most notable of these overvalued contracts was with the government's food subsidy program titled The Local Supply and Production Committees, commonly known as CLAP.

"OFAC closely coordinated these actions with the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center, among other U.S. government partners. As a result of these actions, all property and interests in property of the individuals and entities designated today, and of any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by those individuals or entities, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC," detailed the Treasury Department in September 2019, when it sanctioned Saab.

Rumors of a possible swap

Rumors of a possible prisoner swap gained momentum on the afternoon of Dec. 19, after the Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy reported that Nicolás Maduro's government had released U.S. citizens Airan Berry and Luke Denman.

Denman and Berry are two former members of the U.S. Army Special Forces held at El Helicoide, the largest detention and torture center in Latin America. They were sentenced to 20 years by the Venezuelan justice system.

However, minutes later, sources from the same organization confirmed to Voz Media that the authorities had searched for the two political prisoners in El Helicoide with their belongings, but after a few minutes they were returned to the detention center.

The situation comes at a time when negotiations are taking place between the U.S. government and Maduro's regime through the Barbados Agreement, an attempt by Maduro and the opposition to reach agreements to finally achieve free elections in a country immersed in a unprecedented economic and humanitarian crisis.