Venezuela released a Utah man Saturday who spent nearly two years jailed by the leftist regime of President Nicolas Maduro after secret negotiations by Sen. Bob Corker.
President Trump heralded the release in a tweet.
“Looking forward to seeing Joshua Holt this evening in the White House. The great people of Utah are Celebrating!” tweeted Mr. Trump.
Mr. Holt, 26, was jailed when he traveled to Venezuela in June 2016 to marry a woman he met online. He was looking for a Mormon bride who spoke Spanish.
“We are grateful to all who participated in this miracle,” Mr. Holt’s family said in a statement.
Mr. Corker, the Tennessee Republican who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, secretly met Friday with Mr. Maduro.
The meeting was the culmination of months of backchannel talks led by Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican, according to Mr. Corker.
Mr. Corker credited Mr. Hatch with working “tirelessly on the Holt family’s behalf.”
“I was honored to play a small role in bringing Josh and his wife home to the United States. I also would like to thank [Secretary of State Mike Pompeo] and his team at the State Department for all that they have done,” Mr. Corker said in a statement.
“On a personal note, I would like to thank Caleb McCarry, an incredibly valued member of my staff, for his dogged determination,” he added. “We would not have been successful without his involvement.”
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 threatened to expand sanctions on 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.”
Mr. Holt’s release looked unlikely a week ago, when he appeared in a clandestinely shot video railing against the Maduro government and saying his life was threatened in a prison riot. In retaliation, socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, a powerful ally of Maduro, said on state television that Holt was the CIA’s top spy in Latin America.
The Maduro government has not commented on the reasons for the release.
Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, who is considered to have Mr. Trump’s ear on Latin American issues, said the couple’s “release will in no way change U.S. policy towards the dictatorship in Venezuela.”
Mr. Holt and his wife were believed to be at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas awaiting transportation to Washington in a chartered flight.
Mr. Holt’s wife, Thamara, also was freed. Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican, said Mr. Holt soon would be reunited with “his sweet, long-suffering family” in Riverton, Utah, where one of his wife’s two daughters from previous relationships has been living with Mr. Holt’s mother.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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