Venezuela trades 10 Americans and wanted fugitive 'Fat Leonard' for Maduro ally

Venezuela on Wednesday gave the U.S. 10 American detainees and Leonard Glenn Francis, a fugitive Malaysian port services contractor widely known as "Fat Leonard," in exchange for a close aide to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The prisoner exchange was "one of the biggest and multifaceted hostage deals the U.S. has carried out with a hostile foreign government," The Wall Street Journal reported, as well as "a breakthrough in the Biden administration's rapprochement efforts with Caracas."

Under the terms of the deal, the White House said, Venezuela also agreed to release 20 political prisoners and opposition figure Roberto Abdul, and suspend arrest warrants of three other Venezuelans.

Fat Leonard was the central figure in a huge Navy bribery scandal that ensnared an admiral and gutted the leadership of the U.S. Asia-Pacific fleet. Francis was arrested in a 2013 sting, pleaded guilty to bribing dozens of Navy officers in 2015, agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors — with mixed results — then made a brazen escape in 2022 after cutting off his ankle monitor and fleeing south. He was arrested weeks later in Caracas, trying to board a plane to Russia.

At least six of the 10 American prisoners arrived late Wednesday at an airfield in San Antonio. "Reuniting wrongfully detained Americans with their loved ones has been a priority for my administration since day one," President Joe Biden said in a statement. "As is the return to the United States of fugitives from justice."

The U.S., meanwhile, sent the Maduro government Alex Saab, a Colombian-born financier arrested in Cape Verde in 2020 on an Interpol red notice and extradited to the U.S. in 2021 to face money laundering charges in Miami. The U.S. accused him of siphoning $350 million from government contracts to serve the poor, then cycling that money through U.S. banks, helping Venezuela evade U.S. sanctions.

Some Republicans, plus embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), criticized the handover of Saab, arguing it will just embolden Maduro and fuel his authoritarian regime. The freed U.S. detainees and their families thanked Biden and the U.S. negotiating team for bringing them home.