Venezuela Frees Americans in Biden-Approved Swap With Maduro

Biden grants clemency to nephews of Maduro’s wife: official
Former Citgo officials had been sentenced to long prison terms

This undated file photo posted on Twitter on June 18, 2020, by Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, shows CITGO oil executives Jose Angel Pereira, from left, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Jose Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Vadell and Alirio Jose Zambrano, outside the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, in Caracas, Venezuela.Source: Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry/AP Photo

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Akayla Gardner and Ezra Fieser

October 1, 2022 at 6:54 PM UTC

Updated on

October 2, 2022 at 6:29 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

President Joe Biden’s administration said Venezuela freed seven Americans, including oil executives and a former Marine, in a swap involving two members of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s family imprisoned in the US.

Biden personally decided to grant clemency to two Venezuelans sentenced in the US on drug charges -- Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, both nephews of Maduro’s wife, according to a senior administration official. Each was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2017 for conspiring to import cocaine into the US.