US/Venezuela Prisoner Swap Helps to Ease Tensions Over Sanctions Relief

The US released from jail accused money launderer Alex Saab to Venezuela Wednesday in exchange for 10 Americans incarcerated there in a bid to satisfy negotiations towards prolonging oil and gas sanctions relief.

• The deal, the result of months of negotiations mediated by Qatar between OPEC member Venezuela and the United States, came after the White House said it would need to see progress on prisoner releases in order to continue with energy sanctions relief for Caracas.
• The US eased sanctions on Venezuelan oil and gas in October in expectations of fairer elections in Venezuela as well as prisoner releases.
• Washington had given the Venezuelan government until Nov. 30 to make progress on removing public office bans on opposition candidates and start releasing political prisoners and "wrongfully detained" Americans in order to avoid a reinstatement of sanctions.