Utah man freed in Venezuela after 2 years
WASHINGTON — A secret back channel led by a veteran Republican Senate staffer and a flamboyant Venezuelan official nicknamed “Dracula” broke through hostile relations to secure the release of American prisoner Joshua Holt, who traveled to the country for love and ended up in jail for two years.
On the eve of Venezuela’s May 20 presidential election, the Utah native appeared in a clandestinely shot video from jail railing against Nicolás Maduro’s government, saying his life had been threatened in a prison riot.
In retaliation, he was branded the CIA’s spy boss in Latin America by the head of the ruling socialist party.
But the arrival in Caracas on Friday of Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led to a surprise breakthrough. Maduro handed over Holt and his wife, Thamara Caleno, in what his government said was a goodwill gesture to promote dialogue and respect.
Holt, 26, traveled to Caracas in June 2016 to marry a fellow Mormon he had met online while looking to improve his Spanish. The couple was waiting for Caleno’s U.S. visa when they were arrested at her family’s apartment in a government housing complex for what the U.S. considered trumped-up charges of stockpiling an assault rifle and grenades.
Although Corker sealed the deal in a few tense hours in Venezuela’s capital, the push to secure Holt’s release began months earlier by Corker’s top Latin American policy aide, Caleb McCarry, who both Corker and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, credited with leading the behind-the-scenes negotiations.
McCarry leveraged a 15-yearold relationship with Maduro from their time together on the Boston Group, an informal gathering from across the political spectrum in both countries that worked to repair relations following a coup in 2002 against thenPresident Hugo Chavez.
McCarry secretly traveled to Venezuela in February to discuss Holt’s imprisonment with Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores. The U.S. Embassy was kept at arm’s length, for fear of derailing the talks.
Holding McCarry’s hand throughout the delicate talks was Rafael Lacava, the governor of central Carabobo state and a trusted ally of Maduro, who embraces the nickname Dracula for his habits of tweeting and patrolling around his state late at night in a Batmobile-like vehicle.
Lacava was also close to the Boston Group members and traveled to Washington in March to speak with several lawmakers, including Corker and Hatch.
An official with the National Security Council stressed that nothing had been offered to secure Holt’s release and that there had been no change to U.S. policy to Venezuela.