Among those released was Gustavo Cardenas, one of six executives of oil company Citgo (the “Citgo 6”) arrested in 2017 on corruption charges. The other was Jorge Alberto Fernandez, a Cuban American accused of terrorism for bringing a drone to Venezuela last year.
According to anonymous sources who spoke to Reuters news agency, the US delegation also tried on Saturday to negotiate a deal with Maduro that should lead to the easing of sanctions against Venezuela, in order to break the country from its alliance with Russia. Last week, Maduro wrote on Twitter that he is keeping economic relations with Russia completely intact.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, but produces little because of Western sanctions against the country.