Rep. Elvira Salazar condemns prisoner exchange that would free indicted Maduro ally Alex Saab

Rep. María Elvira Salazar condemned a potential prisoner exchange plan between the U.S. and Venezuela that could result in the release of Colombian businessman Alex Saab, who has been accused by federal prosecutors of conspiring with Nicolás Maduro's communist regime.

The agreement, if validated, is aimed at guaranteeing the release of several U.S. citizens who remain detained by the Venezuelan regime.

The Biden administration is currently considering their options for an exchange to get those imprisoned Americans home, according to a recent exclusive reported by Newsweek.

But the news drew quick fire from Elvira Salazar, who accused Biden of wanting to "free one of the greatest criminals in history."

"We cannot release someone who stole $350 million from the Venezuelan people (and who knows how much more) on a whim of Maduro," the Republican congresswoman said on her Twitter account.

👁️ I've been warning you for months. Biden wants to free one of the biggest criminals in history!

We cannot let go of someone who stole $350 million from the Venezuelan people (and who knows how much more) on a whim of Maduro. https://t.co/nAnkyY5qyi

— Rep. María Elvira Salazar (@RepMariaSalazar) March 2, 2023

Alex Saab is being held in pre-trial detention at a U.S. facility located in Miami.

He is accused of unlawfully routing 350 million dollars through state contracts to the Venezuelan regime, a crime for which he could be sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

One of those who could be released is Eyvin Hernández, a Salvadoran-American lawyer and Los Angeles public defender who was detained at the Colombia-Venezuela border in March 2022.

Hernández was detained by masked men last year, and has been accused by the Maduro regime of entering the country illegally.

Hernández purportedly sent a letter to President Biden informing him that his family was told he and others could be released in exchange for Saab, Newsweek reported.

While there is no official statement on the possible exchange, there is a past precedent for such exchanges after several detainees were released in October.

In that case, Biden made the largest prisoner exchange of his presidency in an agreement with Venezuela.

In that instance, the U.S. released two Maduro relatives convicted of drug trafficking in New York in exchange for seven Americans, five of whom were executives from Citgo.

The exchange was the result of talks that began on March 5.

Maduro met in Caracas with a high-level U.S. delegation led by Juan González, Biden's adviser for Latin America, the Chavista regime detailed in a statement.

The reason for the release exchange was later described by the Maduro regime as "for humanitarian reasons."

Among those released were five Citgo executives: the former president of that company, José Ángel Pereira, and the former vice presidents Tomeu Vadell, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo and José Luis Zambrano, the latter four of American nationality as well as Venezuelan.

In exchange for the seven Americans, Maduro obtained the release of Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, nephews of his wife, Cilia Flores, and sentenced in December 2017 in a New York court to 18 years in prison for drug trafficking.

The two Venezuelans were arrested in Haiti on November 10, 2015 by agents of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and immediately extradited to the United States to be tried in New York and later transferred to a Florida prison, where they were serving sentences.