US citizens detained in Venezuela return home

ANKARA

US President Joe Biden late Tuesday announced the return of two American citizens who had been detained in Venezuela.

In a statement, Biden said Gustavo Cardenas and Jorge Fernandez had been "wrongfully detained."

After being arrested in 2017, Cardenas “has endured five years of hardship and imprisonment at the hands of an unjust system," he said, adding: "Fernandez was arrested last year on spurious charges."

The US has decried the trial as being politically motivated.

The news follows US media reports, not confirmed by Anadolu Agency, that US officials secretly traveled to Venezuela over the weekend to start to fix ties with Venezuela.

The country is allied to Russia, and mending fence with Venezuela could bring its oil back to US markets, helping to cushion the impact over a US embargo on Russian oil over its war on Ukraine.

Saying that "unjustly holding Americans is always unacceptable," Biden also spoke of “every American who is being unjustly held against their will – in Venezuela, in Russia, in Afghanistan, Syria, China, Iran, and elsewhere around the world."

"My administration will keep fighting to bring them all home," he added.