Grenell: US Gave Venezuela Nothing in Exchange for 6 Freed American Hostages

Speaking with The Epoch Times at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Grenell described his visit to Caracas with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He said his goals were to free the prisoners and get Venezuela to accept and pay for repatriation flights of its illegal immigrants from the United States.

“I went down for the day and tried to, through diplomatic means, get the Venezuelans to pay for planes that would come up to the United States to take their citizens who are in our country illegally, who crossed the southern border illegally,” Grenell said. The Trump administration, he added, had isolated roughly 250 Venezuelan illegal immigrants who were suspected members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

“At the same time, I looked at Mr. Maduro, and I said, ‘We’d like to have our hostages home, and I want to bring home six today,’” Grenell said.

While Maduro had initially told him to wait until the morning to discuss the hostages, Grenell replied that he would be boarding his Air Force plane soon, “and I hope that you can look this list over and deliver six.”

Within roughly two and a half hours, cars arrived carrying six of the American prisoners, still wearing black hoods over their heads.

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“They pulled the black hood off [a hostage’s] head. I could see it in his eyes that he was very afraid. Didn’t know what was happening. He would later tell me that he didn’t know if he was going to get shot … if he was going to another prison, he didn’t know what was happening,” Grenell said.

After telling the man he was an American diplomat here to take him home, the man burst into tears and hugged Grenell.

“It was probably the greatest day of my 25-year career, to be able to be there and see humanity in such a low place, and to be so excited to have their situation changed in an instant from what they thought,” he said.

Grenell said Maduro had a “long list of asks” in exchange for the hostages, but the U.S. government did not give Venezuela anything in return.

“I said, ‘Look, we’re not here to give you anything. What I am here to do, though, is to tell you that I came here to Caracas. I’m now sitting in your palace. I’m sitting here asking you to do things, and you have cameras all around. You’re going to use this moment. You’re going to tell people that I’m here; that alone is a gift. That alone is me showing you that we need to talk about a different relationship,’” Grenell said.

“We didn’t give them anything.”

Grenell told The Epoch Times that Venezuela is still holding “six or seven” additional American prisoners, but that the Trump administration is still negotiating for their release.

In 2023, Venezuela released 10 American prisoners in exchange for a Maduro ally, Colombian businessman Alex Saab.

Trump told reporters on Jan. 31 that Grenell’s meeting with Maduro was not meant to legitimize the leader’s presidency, which is not officially accepted by the United States and several other countries.

The United States has repeatedly contested Maduro’s government-backed victory in that election, and the Biden administration reinstated broad oil sanctions on Venezuela after it accused the leader of failing to keep promises of a free presidential election.

Rudy Blalock and Reuters contributed to this report.