LatinNews Daily - 20 July 2020

Venezuela: On 17 July, the international media reported that Bill Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations (1997-1998) and energy secretary (1998-2000) under former President Bill Clinton (1993-2001), had concluded a four-day private mission to Venezuela. The Richardson Center, a US-based non-profit corporation, had tweeted on 13 July that Richardson was travelling to Venezuela to meet President Nicolás Maduro in order to discuss the situation of US prisoners and “other Covid-19 [coronavirus] humanitarian issues” in the country, at the request of the prisoners’ families. US citizens currently held in Venezuela include six executives from Citgo (a US-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Pdvsa) who have been detained since November 2017, as well as Luke Denman and Airan Berry, who were detained in May this year after the failed ‘Operation Gideon’ attack on Venezuela. In an interview with The Washington Post published on 17 July, Richardson said he had failed in his immediate objective - the release of prisoners. He said that his initial optimism about securing the rapid release of at least some of the prisoners had turned to disappointment after catching Maduro “on a bad day, when he was airing a lot of grievances”. Richardson, who has met with Maduro several times in the past, said “I was optimistic in the beginning. We had an hour-and-a-half meeting with Maduro […] it was very cordial, very friendly, but he wouldn’t budge.” Richardson has previously won the release of hostages in North Korea, Cuba, Iraq, and Sudan. He also helped to free Joshua Holt in 2018, who had previously been imprisoned in Venezuela.

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