Maduro releases six imprisoned Americans after meeting with Trump’s envoy in Caracas
Nicolás Maduro’s regime on Friday released six American citizens imprisoned in Venezuela after the strongman met in Caracas with President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Richard Grenell.
The identities of the Americans released were not announced, but Grenell posted online a photo of them inside the plane bringing them back to the United States. “We are wheels up and headed home with these 6 American citizens,” Grenell wrote on his X account. “They just spoke to @realDonaldTrump and they couldn’t stop thanking him.”
Late Friday evening the Washington Post identified one of the release prisoners as David Estrella, 64, from the Bronx, New York. The Post said family members confirmed his identity.
Estrella, who worked as a quality-control operator for pharmaceutical companies, went to Venezuela on Sept. 9 to visit friends, according to a family spokesman.
Globa Reach, a nonprofit that had been working with Estrella’s family since his arrest, said the dual American/Ecuadorian citizen was jailed after crossing into Venezuela from Cucuta, Colombia. The group said Estrella was falsely accused of having been involved in an effort to overthrow Maduro.
“We are very happy for the Estrella family,” the non-profit’s CEO, Mickey Bergman, said in a statement. “Today’s news results from the Trump Administration’s efforts and occurs in only their second week in office. I want to congratulate President Trump, Special Envoy Grenell, and Special Envoy Boehler on this achievement. The quickness by which this was resolved by the new Administration demonstrates their sense of urgency and recognition that Americans do not need to needlessly linger in foreign prisons.”
The statement said Estrella’s former wife, Elvia Macias, had been leading efforts to get her ex-husband released.
“David is a wonderful person, and he violated no laws in Venezuela. He was arrested because he is an American and was used as a bargaining chip by the Maduro regime,” the non profit statement quoted her as saying.
Trump said on the Truth Social website that he was informed that Grenell was bringing six “hostages home from Venezuela. Thank you to Ric Grenell and my entire staff. Great job.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had hinted hours earlier that one of Grenell’s objectives during his trip to Caracas was to ensure the return of all U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela. Trump had specifically instructed Grenell to “guarantee that all detained Americans are brought back home,” and to “identify a location and ensure that repatriation flights” to carry deportees from the U.S., including members of the Tren de Aragua gang, “land in Venezuela.”
At least 10 U.S. citizens had been detained by the Venezuelan regime following the unrest and widespread protests caused by the regime’s announcement that Maduro had won the July 28th, 2024, presidential election.
The Americans were among a total of 125 foreigners arrested in Venezuela, which the regime claims were captured while plotting to destabilize the Maduro government.
This is not the first time the Maduro regime releases American citizens. Following the negotiations that led to the 2024 election, nearly a dozen of them were allowed to leave in a process that also led to the release in the United States of two of Maduro’s nephews imprisoned for drug trafficking and the strongman’s alleged partner, Alex Saab, who was facing money-laundering charges in Miami.
In September 2024, Maduro announced the arrest of five Americans during a crackdown launched by Venezuela’s socialist regime to dismantle what the government claims is a mercenary force assembled by the CIA and Spain’s intelligence service to topple Maduro.
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 8:31 PM.
