U.S. and Venezuela swap prisoners, 'Fat Leonard' as tensions ease

The United States released an ally of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in exchange for 10 American detainees and a fugitive dubbed "Fat Leonard" in a sweeping prisoner swap deal Wednesday between the rival governments.

U.S. President Joe Biden made the "extremely difficult decision" to free Alex Saab, the onetime confidant of socialist leader Maduro, who is accused by the United States of money laundering for Caracas, US officials said.

Venezuela in return handed over a fugitive named Leonard Francis, who was at the center of the US Navy's worst-ever corruption scandal, freed 20 Venezuelan political prisoners and released the 10 US citizens.

The Americans deplaned at a U.S. military base in San Antonio, Texas late Wednesday, with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan tweeting a photograph of the returnees and saying: "Welcome home."

Washington has been easing the pressure on the leftist Caracas government while it pushes for progress on democracy, agreeing in October to scale back oil and gas sanctions.

Biden -- who faced criticism for a prisoner swap with Iran earlier this year -- defended the Venezuela deal and denied it could encourage other governments to detain US citizens.

"We're freeing Americans, people who are held illegally, and we made a deal with Venezuela that they'll hold free elections," he told reporters at the White House.

"So far, they've maintained their requirements and that's it."

The deal was brokered by the Gulf state of Qatar, US officials added.

Venezuela's Maduro hailed Saab's release as "a triumph of truth," and the ex-prisoner's arrival home was broadcast live on local television.

Saab, who spoke at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas with Maduro at his side, thanked the Venezuelan leader and said that "today the miracle of freedom, the miracle of justice, has become a reality."

- 'Extremely difficult' -

Saab, a Colombian national whom Maduro gave Venezuelan nationality and an ambassadorial title, was arrested in June 2020 on a stopover in Cape Verde and then extradited to the United States.

Saab and his business partner Alvaro Pulido are charged in the United States with running a network that exploited food aid destined for Venezuela, where millions have fled an economy that has been devastated, despite the nation's oil wealth.

The pair are alleged to have moved $350 million out of Venezuela.

Maduro reacted furiously to Saab's extradition, suspending talks with the US-backed opposition on ending the country's political and economic crisis.

A senior US official said Biden "had to make the extremely difficult decision to offer something that the Venezuelan counterparts actively sought, and he made the decision to grant clemency to Alex Saab."

The White House named four of the freed Americans as Joseph Cristella, Eyvin Hernandez, Jerrel Kenemore and Savoi Wright.

Former US soldiers Luke Alexander Denman and Airan Berry, who were serving 20-year sentences for a botched armed invasion into Venezuela in 2020, were also among those freed, a Venezuelan rights group said.

- 'Suckling pig' -

Francis, the fugitive arrested and returned by Venezuela, was a military contractor known as "Fat Leonard" who escaped house arrest in California in September 2022 by cutting off his GPS tag.

The Malaysian national pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering some $500,000 in bribes to naval officers to steer official work to his shipyards, then overcharging the US Navy to the tune of $35 million.

Francis bribed "scores" of US Navy officials with gifts including "cash, prostitutes and luxury travel, and things like Cuban cigars, Kobe beef and Spanish suckling pig," a US official said.

Biden said Francis would now "face justice" for "brazen bribery and corruption."

A prisoner exchange has long been in discussions as the United States switches strategy to engaging Maduro.

The United States, under Donald Trump, in 2019 declared Maduro to be illegitimate following allegations of election irregularities and launched a campaign through sanctions and pressure to remove him.

But Maduro withstood the pressure, holding on with the help of a loyal political support base and the military as well as from Cuba, Russia and China.

The US dealings with Venezuela come despite separate concerns over Maduro's escalation of a long-simmering territorial dispute with Guyana over the oil-rich Essequibo region, although tensions eased last week.

Washington has been willing to trade high-profile prisoners for detained Americans, whose cases generate public sympathy.