Multiple Americans detained in Venezuela have been released, Trump administration says

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Multiple Americans who were detained in Venezuela have been released, the Trump administration said Tuesday.

“We welcome the release of detained Americans in Venezuela,” the State Department said. “This is an important step in the right direction by the interim authorities.”

The State Department did not provide the exact numbers of those released. But a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe non-public details, said four Americans were released as a group Tuesday and one was quietly released Monday.

The releases come after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a stunning nighttime raid earlier this month.

The head of Venezuela’s national assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, said last week that a “significant number” of Venezuelan and foreigners imprisoned in the country would be released as a gesture to “seek peace” following the military operation that deposed Maduro.

As of Tuesday evening, the Venezuela human rights group Foro Penal had confirmed 56 prisoners it said were detained for political reasons had been freed. The group criticized the lack of government transparency over the releases. Venezuela’s government negated the organization’s count, and reported a far higher figure of 400 Tuesday afternoon.

But the government did not provide evidence of the releases or a time range in which they were carried out, nor did it identify those freed, making it impossible to determine whether those freed were behind bars for political or other reasons.

Though Washington and Caracas have long had a fraught and limited relationship, prisoner releases have been a rare source of connection, with the two countries in engaging in a series of swaps of detained citizens.

In July, Venezuela released 10 jailed U.S. citizens and permanent residents in exchange for getting home scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Bloomberg News first reported the releases.