House speaker slams Biden’s deal with Venezuela as a diplomatic cave

House Speaker Mike Johnson is criticizing a major prisoner exchange between Venezuela and the United States, telling McClatchy the agreement announced Wednesday marked a moment of diplomatic weakness for the Biden administration.

The deal secured the freedom of all U.S. citizens wrongfully detained in Venezuela, the return of a fugitive wanted by U.S. law enforcement, and commitments toward free elections in Venezuela next year in exchange for the release of Alex Saab, a top confidante of Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro.

Johnson said that Maduro had already committed to take steps toward democratic elections and to the release of all U.S. citizens in Venezuelan custody before the Biden administration announced sanctions relief on the country’s oil sector two months ago.

The release of Saab — who was detained in the United States on federal money-laundering charges — was a diplomatic cave that would “project weakness overseas that will embolden our adversaries,” Johnson said in a statement to McClatchy and the Miami Herald.

“Yesterday’s announcement is the latest demonstration of President Biden’s misguided desire to accommodate the demands of dictators and terrorists,” Johnson said.

“To be clear, the agreement on U.S. hostages was already in place and under way, which makes this nothing more than a gift to those working to repress freedom,” the speaker added. “The accords signed two months ago stipulated that for sanctions relief, Venezuela would release unjustly held Americans. Now, the release of Alex Saab, the engineer of Maduro’s vast corruption network who was also working with Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, appears to be the cherry on top.”

The Biden administration began relieving sanctions on Venezuelan oil in October after the Maduro regime announced an electoral framework with the country’s democratic opposition, known as the unitary platform. The White House said at the time it would snap back sanctions on Caracas by Nov. 30, however, unless Maduro also began releasing U.S. citizens held in custody.

Privately, U.S. officials were hoping the regime would release one or two of the Americans held there by the November deadline. But a deal began to emerge shortly after the deadline passed that opened up a pathway to allow many more to be released at once.

In total, 10 Americans were released on Wednesday from Venezuela, including six who were designated by the State Department as wrongfully detained.

In exchange, Alex Saab, a top aide widely considered to be Maduro’s fixer and right-hand man, was released from U.S. custody. Saab was widely expected to be convicted on several felony charges, and could have provided meaningful insight to U.S. law enforcement on the inner workings of the Maduro regime if saddled with a lengthy sentence.

At home in Venezuela, democracy advocates question whether Maduro will ultimately let his most formidable opponent, María Corina Machado, run freely and competitively against him next year.

As President Joe Biden was departing a visit to Wisconsin on Wednesday, McClatchy asked him whether Maduro had committed to allow all candidates to run in the country’s next presidential election.

“We’ve laid down specific requirements for a democratic election,” Biden responded. “He’s agreed to all of them.”