Release of American jailed in Venezuela won't change US policy, Rubio says

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/27/joshua-holt-jailed-venezuela-released

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The return to the US of a Mormon missionary who was held for two years without trial in Venezuela does not represent an opening in US policy towards the South American country, Republican senator Marco Rubio said on Sunday.

“I’m glad Josh Holt is home,” Rubio told CBS’s Face the Nation, but he added: “This has nothing to do with the broader issue of sanctions, those things stay in place, the administration made that clear policy has not changed.”

The White House says Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro runs a “dictatorship” and just won re-election in a “sham” vote.

Holt and his Venezuelan wife, Thamara Caleno, were arrested on 30 June 2016 at her family’s apartment in a government complex on the outskirts of Caracas. Authorities accused Holt of stockpiling an assault rifle and grenades and suggested his case was linked to other unspecified US attempts to undermine Maduro’s rule amid deep economic and political turbulence.

They were held in a Caracas prison run by the secret police that also is home to dozens of Maduro’s opponents. Their trial was set to begin this month after delays that led the Trump administration to question the motives for his detention. Until a Donald Trump tweet on Saturday, the US had not publicly called Holt a “hostage”.

Holt’s release looked unlikely a week ago, when he appeared in a clandestinely shot video railing against the Maduro government and saying his life was threatened in a prison riot. In retaliation, socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, a powerful Maduro ally, said on state television Holt was the CIA’s top spy in Latin America.

Venezuela’s communications minister, Jorge Rodriguez, said Holt’s release was a goodwill gesture that followed months of dialogue between the Maduro government and US lawmakers.

“We’re praying that this type of gesture … will allow us to strengthen what we’ve always sought: dialogue, harmony, respect for our independence and respect for our sovereignty,” he said.

Holt and his wife arrived in Washington on Saturday evening for a tearful reunion with his parents, Laurie and Jason Holt. A few hours later, Trump welcomed them to the White House.

“Those two years, they were a very, very, very difficult two years,” said Holt, sitting next to Trump in the Oval Office. “Not really the great vacation that I was looking for … I’m just so grateful for what you guys have done.”

To Holt, Trump said: “You’ve gone through a lot. More than most people could endure.”

Laurie Holt thanked Trump and lawmakers, adding: “I also want to say thank you to President Maduro for releasing Josh and letting him to come home.”

Rubio, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee and a hardliner on Venezuela, spoke to Trump at length on Friday night. The same day, Bob Corker, chair of the Senate panel, held a surprise meeting in Caracas with Maduro.

Months of secret backchannel talks between an aide to Corker and allies of Maduro preceded Holt’s release. According to a US official who has closely followed Holt’s plight, the White House learned from Corker on Friday of Holt’s impending freedom. Holt and his wife were reunited at the Caracas airport with her daughter from a previous relationship, and all three boarded a chartered flight to Washington.

“We are on our way home,” Corker tweeted. When he left the Caracas airport, Holt told the Associated Press the ordeal had left him “exhausted”.

On Sunday, Rubio said: “Is there an opportunity? Yeah. Here’s the opportunity. That Venezuela returns to constitutional order. They have an elected national assembly, they have a constitutionally appointed supreme court. Both of those entities are not allowed to operate by the dictatorship … those things need to be put back in place.

“There needs to be free and fair and internationally supervised elections. Our sanctions are built on that. And when that happens the sanctions go away. Until that happens the sanctions remain and it will actually increase.”