US-Venezuela prisoner swap: Trump’s top officials derail deal with parallel talks with same official

The Donald Trump administration of the United States and Venezuela were negotiating a prisoner swap, but the talks broke down as two top US officials held separate, uncoordinated talks with the same Venezuelan official, according to a report.

The United States holds several Venezuelans in prisons as part of Trump’s crackdown on immigrants and Venezuela holds several Americans in jail and keeps many Venezuelans as political prisoners. The United States does not recognise Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate ruler, who has ruled the country with an iron first since 2013 and stayed in power by claiming victories in sham elections. Venezuela faces severe US sanctions.

The New York Times has reported that that two top US officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Venezuela envoy Richard Grenell, held separate talks with the same Venezuelan official parallelly without any coordination.

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The talks were aimed at freeing several Americans and dozens of political prisoners held in Venezuelan jails in exchange of repatriating around 250 Venezuelans held in El Salvador at the behest of the Trump administration.

However, as Rubio and Grenell held talks separately and offered different terms, no deal could be reached over the difference in their terms and lack of clarity among Venezuelans about who —Rubio or Grenell— really spoke for Trump, according to The Times.

How dysfunctional diplomacy led to prisoner swap’s failure

Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Jorge Rodríguez, who was leading negotiations for his country, found terms of Grenell better, as per The Times.

Grenell had offered to allow Chevron to continue oil operations in Venezuela, which is a key source for revenue for the regime’s sanctions-hit economy.

However, it has emerged as even though Trump’s envoy, Grenell, offered the continuation of Chevron’s operations, the White House was not willing to grant Chevron the permission to continue working in Venezuela. The negotiations therefore ended without any deal.

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The newspaper reported that the Trump administration still remains open to reaching a deal with Venezuela.

The deal would have freed 11 US citizens and permanent residents, such as Lucas Hunter, who was arrested in January, and Jonathan Pagan Gonzalez, who was arrested last year, and around 80 Venezuelans jailed for protesting the stolen presidential election last year, as per the newspaper.