Austin American-Statesman

Utah man held in Venezuela returns

President Trump welcomes Joshua Holt to White House.

- By Joshua Goodman and Catherine Lucey

Joshua Holt, a Utah man who traveled to Venezuela in 2016 to marry a woman he met online but soon found himself jailed and later branded the CIA’s top spy in Latin America, has been welcomed home by his family and President Donald Trump.

Holt, 26, says he was “overwhelme­d with gratitude.”

He and his wife, Thamara Caleno, arrived Saturday evening at Washington Dulles Internatio­nal Airport 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 an emotional Joshua 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 the lawmakers for her son’s safe return, adding: “I also want to say thank you to President Maduro for releasing Josh and letting him come home.”

Their release came one day after Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., held a surprise meeting in Caracas with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who the Trump administra­tion says runs a “dictatorsh­ip” and just won re-election in a “sham” vote.

Trump, in a tweet, described Holt as a “hostage.” The U.S. contended Joshua Holt was held on trumped-up charges.

Months of secret, backchanne­l talks between an aide to Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and close allies of Maduro preceded their return. Yet Holt’s release had seemed unlikely even a week ago.

Joining Trump in the Oval Office were Corker, Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, and Utah Rep. Mia Love, all Republican­s. The lawmakers thanked Trump for his support.

The White House learned from Corker on Friday of Holt’s impending release, according to a U.S. official who has closely followed Holt’s plight and spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private talks.

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 departed the Caracas airport earlier, Holt told The Associated Press that the ordeal had left him “exhausted.”

Venezuela’s communicat­ions minister, Jorge Rodriguez, said their release was a goodwill gesture that followed months of dialogue between the Maduro government and U.S. 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 set out for the South American country in June 2016 to marry a woman he met online while looking for Spanish-speaking Mormons who could help him improve his Spanish.

He had planned to spend several months in Caracas that summer with his new wife and her two daughters, to secure their visas so they could move with him to the U.S.

Instead, the couple was arrested that June 30 at her family’s apartment in a government housing complex on the outskirts of Caracas. Authoritie­s accused him of stockpilin­g an assault rifle and grenades and suggested that his case was linked to other unspecifie­d U.S. attempts to undermine Maduro’s rule amid deep economic and political turbulence.

They were held in a notorious Caracas prison, run by the secret police, that also is home to dozens of top Maduro opponents jailed during the past few years of political unrest in the country. Their trial was set to begin this month after repeated delays that led the Trump administra­tion to question the motives for his detention.

Until Trump’s tweet on Saturday, the U.S. had stopped short of publicly calling 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 that Holt was the CIA’s top spy in Latin America.

The White House press secretary said in a statement Saturday night that U.S. policy toward Venezuela was not changing even while thanking the government for releasing the Holts.

 ?? ALEX BRANDON / AP ?? Joshua Holt (center), who was recently released from a prison in Venezuela, hugs Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, (left) in the Oval Office on Saturday as Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., (second from right) talks with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. At left is Holt’s wife,...
ALEX BRANDON / AP Joshua Holt (center), who was recently released from a prison in Venezuela, hugs Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, (left) in the Oval Office on Saturday as Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., (second from right) talks with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. At left is Holt’s wife,...

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