OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
5:40 PM – Friday, January 31, 2025
After meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, President Donald Trump’s envoy, Richard Grenell, announced on Friday that he was returning to the United States with six American detainees.
At a time when the Trump administration has been spearheading a deportation and anti-gang campaign in the U.S., Grenell’s primary goal for the visit, according to Trump administration officials earlier on Friday, was to obtain the release of Americans who are being held in the country.
One of the detainees’ family members, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed that they were being held hostage.
Grenell shared a picture online of the six men with him onboard an airplane, but he did not identify them. They were seen wearing light blue uniforms — Venezuelan penal system jumpsuits.
The Trump administration’s first trip to Latin America was captured in a post by Venezuela’s state-owned broadcaster, which showed Grenell shaking hands with a smiling Maduro in the presidential palace in Miraflores.
According to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, Grenell, a former acting director of national intelligence, met with Maduro, the authoritarian Socialist leader who has ruled Venezuela since 2013.
Maduro has been accused of “stealing” the most recent election, after the opposition party came forward with purported evidence proving that their candidate received the most votes.
The officials reportedly discussed the Americans detained in the South American nation, as well as illegal alien deportation flights, cooperation to confront the Tren de Aragua gang, and energy.
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