International roundup

Por Agencies
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The Venezuelan government freed at least one jailed American on Tuesday night as it seeks to improve relations with the Biden administration, which is looking to undercut support for Russia in Latin America.

A nongovernmental group that tracks arbitrary detentions and another person familiar with the matter confirmed to The Associated Press the release of Gustavo Cardenas, one of six oil executives jailed for more than four years.

The move follows a secret weekend visit to Venezuela by senior Biden administration officials, including the top White House official on Latin America and the State Department’s top hostage negotiator. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that “there were a range of topics discussed during that trip, including the health and welfare of detained U.S. citizens.”

The release came hours after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro signaled an interest in improving relations with the U.S. amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and concerns in the United States over rising gas prices.

The State Department declined to comment Tuesday evening. But Cardenas’s release was confirmed by Foro Penal, a nongovernmental group, and by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss the issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, came home empty-handed from a previous trip to Caracas in December. 

But he returned to Venezuela this weekend with other administration officials including Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council director for the Western Hemisphere, and Ambassador James Story, who heads the U.S. government’s Venezuelan Affairs Unit out of neighboring Colombia.

Cardenas and five other executives of Houston-based Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil giant, had been in detention in Venezuela since 2017 and sentenced to prison over a never-executed plan to refinance billions in the oil company’s bonds. 

The U.S. government has pressed for their release.

Meanwhile, three other Americans are also being held in Venezuela, two former Green Berets, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, who were arrested for their involvement in a confusing plot to overthrow Maduro, and former U.S. Marine Matthew Heath, detained on weapons charges.

Gonzalo Himiob, a lawyer and vice president director of Foro Penal, said in a statement that the end of an arbitrary detention should be celebrated but warned of the consequences that can come from an agreement like the one that led to Cardenas’ release.

“The release of any political prisoner, when it arises from an agreement between political actors, and not from respect for the law, confirms that from the beginning the reasons for the detention were neither legal nor valid, but political and, consequently, arbitrary and contrary to human rights,” Himiob said.

Powerful Democrats and Republicans alike on Capitol Hill last week began voicing support for a U.S. ban on Russian oil and natural gas imports as the next step to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion.

Venezuela is Putin’s top ally in Latin America and a top oil exporter. 

Its reentry into U.S. energy markets could mitigate the fallout at the pump from a possible oil embargo on Russia. But the discussions in Caracas were quickly condemned by top Democrat and Republic senators.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Biden’s efforts to unite the world against Putin “should not be undercut by propping up” Maduro, whose government is under investigation by the International Criminal Court for possible crimes against humanity committed against protesters in 2017.

COSTA RICA

Costa Rica’s Congress has passed a bill which will legalize  the use of marijuana for medical purposes and allow its cultivation for industrial use.

The cultivation and sale of marijuana for recreational purposes, however, will remain banned.

President Carlos Alvarado is expected to sign it within days.

Supporters of the bill say it will boost the agricultural sector and provide employment opportunities.

Following Tuesday’s vote, Costa Rica will join a host of other Latin American countries where medical marijuana has been made legal.

Recreational use of marijuana remains prohibited in most of the region except Uruguay, which in 2013 became the first country in the world to legalise it.

Costa Rica’s bill was not without controversy. 

President Alvarado vetoed an earlier version, arguing that limits needed to be placed on individual cultivation and consumption.

The amended bill has the backing of the president, who said it would be «of great benefit to Costa Rica».

Patients who will benefit from easier access to medical marijuana took to Twitter to thank Zoila Rosa Volio, the lawmaker behind the bill, for pushing it through Congress.

The same day on social media, a cancer patient posted a tearful video describing how medical marijuana had helped her regain her appetite and walk again.

POLAND

The Pentagon on Tuesday rejected Poland’s surprise announcement that it would give the United States its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine, a rare display of disharmony by NATO allies seeking to boost Ukrainian fighters while avoiding getting caught up in a wider war with Russia.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Poland’s declaration that it intended to deliver the 28 jets to the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany raised the concerning prospect of warplanes departing from a U.S. and NATO base to fly into airspace contested with Russia in the Ukraine conflict.

“We will continue to consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistical challenges it presents, but we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one,” Kirby said in a statement.

The proposed gift of more warplanes would be a morale booster for Ukrainians under pounding Russian assault for nearly two weeks. 

But it also raises the risk of the war expanding beyond Ukraine.

Russia has declared that supporting Ukraine’s air force would be tantamount to joining the war, and could spur retaliation.

Meanwhile, White House officials were blindsided by the Polish announcement on the MiGs. 

The proposal did not come up during talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he was recently in Poland, according to a U.S. official familiar with the talks.

The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said White House officials did not think the proposal would easily solve the logistical challenges of providing aircraft to Ukraine.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told lawmakers at a hearing on the Ukraine crisis Tuesday she learned of Poland’s plans only while driving to the hearing.

“To my knowledge, it wasn’t pre-consulted with us,” Nuland told senators.

Ukraine has been pleading for more warplanes as it resists mightier Russian forces. 

Washington has been looking at a proposal under which Poland would supply Ukraine with the MiG-29s and in turn receive American F-16s to make up for their loss. 

Ukrainian pilots are trained to fly the Soviet-era fighter jets.

The Polish Foreign Ministry announced the plan in a statement, which said the jets would be delivered to Ramstein free of charge.

“At the same time, Poland requests the United States to provide us with used aircraft with corresponding operational capabilities,” it said.

The Polish government also appealed to other owners of MIG-29 jets to follow suit.

Former Soviet-bloc NATO members Bulgaria and Slovakia also still have Soviet-made fighter jets in their air forces.