Caracas
Prisoner swap: Venezuela freed seven imprisoned Americans last week after President Biden agreed to grant clemency to two nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for plotting to smuggle cocaine into the United States. The Americans included five Citgo oil executives arrested in the South American nation in 2017 and convicted of embezzlement in a 2021 trial marred by irregularities. The Americans were flown to a third country at the same time as the “narco nephews”—Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas—in the biggest trade of detained citizens yet for the Biden administration. The deal came as Biden faced pressure to bring home Americans wrongfully detained abroad, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American, Paul Whelan, jailed in Russia.