Today, Tuesday, Nicolás Maduro ordered the release of two American prisoners, two months after the signing of the Barbados agreements between the government and the opposition. These are Airan Berry and Luke Denman, imprisoned in the sinister Helicoide prison (one of the headquarters of Chavismo’s political police) and sentenced to 20 years in prison for having participated in the failed Operation Gedeón, in which several soldiers and Venezuelan rebel police attempted an “extraction” operation against several Chavista leaders.
“The central objective was to kill me in the middle of the pandemic,” argued the “people’s president” at that time.
“Fortunately they will be with their families this Christmas, more than 300 Venezuelan political prisoners are in prison and they also deserve their freedom,” reported the Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy, the first organization to confirm the news.
The release of American prisoners was the first unmet demand of the Barbados agreements. Several of them are still in prison, including the last one captured, at the end of October, businessman Savoi Wright, 38, who suffered an extortion attempt by the agents who arrested him.
The images in front of the White House of Claire, Berry’s daughter, moved American public opinion days ago and once again reminded President Joe Biden of the trauma it generates in his society. In Caracas it was known that the American negotiators remained in the Venezuelan capital in recent days, the rumor even reappeared that the US prisoners would only return to their country in exchange for the freedom of Colombian magnate Alex Saab, alleged front man of Maduro. and its main financial operator.
The two Americans, former Green Berets whom Maduro also accused of belonging to Donald Trump’s security, joined the operation as mercenaries. In the second landing of the rebels, 15 of them were arrested in Chuao, Aragua state. Among them was Josnars Baduel, one of the sons of General Raúl Isaías Baduel, who died in prison shortly later.
In the first landing, eight of the rebels lost their lives, several of them executed, according to the evidence presented by the operation.
Several of those detained by Operation Gedeón denounced during their trials the torture to which they were subjected, such as electric shocks, beatings and asphyxiation. The abuse caused Josnars to suffer serious injuries, including a torn knee ligament, broken shoulders, several hernias and a torn testicle.