Within hours of being freed from a Venezuelan jail, Josh Holt was in the Oval Office shaking hands with President Trump.
Mr. Holt, a 26-year-old Utah man was imprisoned by the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro for nearly two years after traveling to Venezuela to marry a woman he met online.
“Welcome you to the White House. It’s really special to have you both,” the president told
Mr. Holt and his bride, Thamy. “You’ve gone through a lot. A lot more than people can endure.”
Mr. Holt said that he was “overwhelmed with gratitude.” He thanked those in the room for supporting his wife through a “very, very, very difficult two years.”
He added, “Not really the great vacation I was looking for. But we’re still together.”
He met Thamy online while looking for a Mormon bride who spoke Spanish. A nearly two-year nightmare behind bars ensued.
Also at the homecoming were Mr. Holts parents and the two senators who helped secretly negotiate his release, Sen. Bob Corker, Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Mia Love.
Mr. Holts mother, Laurie Holt, thanked the president, the State Department and the lawmakers.
“I’ve grown to love Sen. Hatch and Mia so much,” she said. “Not everybody gets to talk to Sen. Hatch and Mia Love and when everything happened last week, Mia was the one that answered her phone and was the one who got things rolling, with Sen. Hatch, to save Josh.”
Ms. Love, Utah Republican, briefly teared up during the remarks.
Mr. Corker, the Tennessee Republican who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, secretary met Friday with Mr. Maduro and secured Mr. Holts release.
The meeting was the culmination of months of back-channel talks led by Mr. Hatch, Utah Republican, and involving Ms. Love.
The diplomacy succeeded despite tense relations between the U.S. and Venezuela, with the Trump administration slapping increasingly severe sanctions on the socialist regime. The administration has treated to expand the sanction to the oil industry that is Venezuela’s economic lifeblood after Mr. Maduro went forward with a presidential election last week that the U.S. has called a “sham.”
Sen. Bob Corker said the journey back to America was “quite an experience.”
It almost looked like they wouldn’t get out of Venezuela.
“We were going down the runway and they turned the engine off and turned around. And we still weren’t sure we were leaving or not,” Mr. Corker said.
Mr. Trump asked what happened and the senator explained that there was an issue with an instrument on the plane.
“Probably the only time anybody was ever happy that there was a bad instrument on an airplane,” Mr. Trump said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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