Even the WSJ calls it another WIN...
A Great Escape From Venezuela
The U.S. helps rescue four democrats from Maduro’s captivity.
By The Editorial Board
May 9, 2025 5:36 pm ET
If you’re looking for some good news in the world these days—and who isn’t?—consider the U.S.-coordinated rescue this week of four hostages held by Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. It’s
an embarrassment to the regime, and a win for the Trump Administration, which took risks that Joe Biden shrank from.
Five members of Venezuela’s democratic opposition—Magalli Meda, Omar González, Pedro Urruchurtu, Claudia Macero, and Humberto Villalobos—had been working for the presidential campaign of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado last year when the regime tried to arrest them. On March 20, 2024, they
took refuge in the Argentine embassy and requested safe passage out of the country under international law. The regime refused.
Ms. Machado won the July 28 presidential election in a landslide. When Argentine President Javier Milei wouldn’t call the race for the military dictatorship, Venezuela expelled the Argentine diplomats. Brazil agreed to take over the building as caretaker but later in the year its diplomats were barred from entering the premises.
The regime then laid siege to the embassy, cut electricity, and forced the occupants to ration food and water. The building became the most surveilled site in the country other than the presidential palace. Armed patrols walked the streets outside the embassy. One of the five managed to escape before this week in unknown fashion.
The State Department declined to talk about the rescue operation, but our sources say the U.S. played a significant role. It’s likely that guards around the embassy and maybe others were, er, persuaded to look the other way. There appears to have been no firefight.
Top regime enforcer Diosdado Cabello must be furious that his human bargaining chips escaped. After the escape, his goons raided Ms. Meda’s home. Mr. Cabello also claims the regime released the hostages as part of some political pact. But then why ransack Ms. Meda’s home?
Brazil said in a statement that it wasn’t involved in any deal, having tried for months to negotiate safe passage for the five. Ms. Machado told us from Caracas on Thursday that there was “absolutely no negotiation.” She called it a “precise, complex and perfectly executed operation.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised the mission on X.com Tuesday, adding that “Maduro’s illegitimate regime has undermined Venezuela’s institutions, violated human rights, and endangered our regional security.” The State Department added Friday:
“The Maduro regime’s vulnerability and internal weakness in its own country is clear.”
That may have the dictator sleeping with one eye open.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/hostage-...assy-526f19ab?
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