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Trump's special missions envoy, Ric Grenell, returns from Venezuela with six freed US hostages

The announcement comes after Grenell spent more than six hours in Caracas, the capital of the South American country, meeting with socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro.

Richard Grenell, Trump's special envoy, with the six hostages released in Venezuela'X' / @RichardGrenell

Ric Grenell, President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, confirmed via his X account that he is returning to the United States with six freed U.S. hostages after an express trip to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, where the senior official met with dictator Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil and Jorge Rodriguez, a top leader of the Chavista leadership.

"We are wheels up and headed home with these 6 American citizens," Grenell wrote on X after spending more than six hours in Venezuela, a country hostile to the US. "They just spoke to @realDonaldTrump and they couldn’t stop thanking him."

In a post on social media, President Trump congratulated Grenell and his team on the achievement.

"Just been informed that we are bringing six hostages home from Venezuela. Thank you to Ric Grenell and my entire staff. Great job!" Trump said.

Nice gesture or deal?

Grenell's trip comes at a time when the Trump administration is still defining its foreign policy towards Venezuela, ruled by dictator Maduro, who on January 10 was illegitimately sworn in for a new period of government after the electoral fraud of last July 28, when the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, swept the elections by a margin of two to one, obtaining 7 million votes.

Grenell's trip to Caracas took many by surprise, from analysts, experts and journalists who cover Venezuela's current affairs and, therefore, its relations with the United States. The news also surprised Republican congressmen and senators from Florida, who made public their requests to the special envoy for the Trump administration not to recognize or make concessions to the socialist dictator. A practice of appeasement that they criticized throughout the term of Democratic President Joe Biden.

Maduro's tyranny, aware that Trump was the most hostile U.S. president towards chavismo in its more than two decades of the regime, celebrated with fanfare the arrival of Grenell to Caracas, using its propaganda apparatus to boast about the arrival of a high-ranking White House official in the hope of reaching migratory agreements and lifting sanctions.

In a statement, the Venezuelan government said that the meeting with Grenell dealt with "migration, negative impact of sanctions, U.S. citizens involved in crimes in national territory and integrity of the Venezuelan political system."

The Maduro regime put forward an "Agenda Zero" strategy which seeks a new beginning for bilateral relations between Washington and Caracas.

However, the Trump administration, through the U.S. president, is still adopting a critical tone towards Maduro.

While Grenell was in Venezuela, Trump was asked about the trip to Caracas and what his policy will be towards the Maduro regime, whose leaders are wanted for drug trafficking and are under sanctions by the Department of the Treasury.

Trump responded that Maduro is a "dictator" who has "treated the United States and Venezuelans badly" and assured that it will not buy more oil from Caracas, ending his predecessor Joe Biden's policy.

"We have a tremendous Venezuelan population, we want to see what we can do to get people back to their country safely, with freedom, and he is meeting with a lot of different people, but we are for the people of Venezuela," Trump said. "Venezuela has been very unfortunate, I was very surprised when I saw that Biden agreed to buy a lot of oil from Venezuela, because Venezuela was just about finished, the dictator. And when that happened, it brought him back to life, you know, Biden went out and they buy millions of barrels of oil."

"We're not going to let that nonsense happen, we're going to see what happens, we're not comfortable with Venezuela, we don't like how they treat Venezuelans, not at all," the president stated.

Before Trump's statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked if Grenell's trip meant that Washington recognizes Maduro as the president of Venezuela.

"Absolutely not," Leavitt responded.

Likewise, Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump's special envoy for Latin America, clarified earlier in a call with journalists that Grenell's mission in Venezuela was "very specific."

“All I would do on this call is urge the Maduro government, the Maduro regime in Venezuela, to heed to special envoy Rick Grenell’s message and to his demands and what he puts on the table, because ultimately there will be consequences," the senior official said.

It is still unclear whether the six Americans' return home is just a good gesture by the Maduro regime or implies the signing of an agreement between Caracas and Washington that has not yet been made public.

For the moment, the U.S. continues to recognize Edmundo Gonzalez, the opposition candidate backed by leader Maria Corina Machado, as the elected president of Venezuela.

Since Maduro committed a grotesque fraud on July 28, 2024, the political crisis and repression in Venezuela have intensified, with thousands of arbitrary arrests, allegations of torture and even extrajudicial killings of activists, opposition politicians and Venezuelan citizens.

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