Venezuela says seeks harmony, respect as it releases man
The Utahn was jailed on weapons charges nearly two years ago
WASHINGTON» Joshua Holt, who traveled to Venezuela from Utah in 2016 to marry a Spanish-speaking Mormon woman but soon found himself jailed and later branded the CIA’S top spy in Latin America, was set free by the anti-american Maduro government Saturday in what his family called “this miracle.”
Holt and his wife, Thamara Caleno, arrived Saturday evening at Washington Dulles International Airport. When he departed the airport in Caracas earlier in the day, Holt told The Associated Press that the ordeal had left him exhausted.
Their release came one day after an influential U.S. senator held a surprise meeting in Caracas with President Nicolas Maduro, who the Trump administration says runs a “dictatorship” and just won re-election in a “sham” vote.
Their get-together was the result of months of secret, backchannel talks between an aide to Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and close allies of Maduro. Yet Holt’s release had
seemed unlikely even a week ago.
President Donald Trump, in a tweet, described Holt as a “hostage” and said he expected to host Holt and his family at the White House on Saturday evening. “Good news about the release,” he wrote. The U.S. contended Holt was held on trumpedup charges.
The White House learned from Corker, R-tenn., on Friday of Holt’s impending release, according to a U.S. official who has followed Holt’s plight.
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.
Venezuela’s communications minister, Jorge Rodri- guez, 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, now 26, set out for the South American country in June 2016 to marry a woman he met online while he was looking for Spanishspeaking Mormons who could help him improve his fluency in the language. 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.