Erik Prince, a major Trump donor and the founder of controversial security firm formerly known as Blackwater, travelled to Caracas last month for a secret meeting with Venezuela’s vice-president, according to several people familiar with the visit.
It’s not clear whether Prince, who has been accused of back-channeling on behalf of the Trump administration before and whose sister is Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, was carrying a message from the White House, which has imposed severe sanctions on Venezuela barring Americans from doing business with President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government.
Prince travelled to Caracas for the late November meeting with Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez after alerting U.S. officials, said one person briefed on the meeting. Rodriguez is one of several dozen Venezuela officials sanctioned by the U.S.
At a private dinner at Rodriguez’s home, Prince is believed to have urged the release of six employees of Houston-based Citgo, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the visit.
Two weeks later, the six men — five of them dual U.S.-Venezuelan citizens — were granted house arrest. They have been held for more than two years on charges of embezzlement that the U.S. government believes
Two other people also said they were aware of the meeting but had fewer details of what was discussed.
Rodriguez did not reply to a request seeking comment nor did her brother, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez.
Marc Cohen, a spokesman, said Prince had no comment.
The trip marks something of a reversal for Prince, who earlier in the year had discussed with several people a plan to topple Maduro.
The State Department had no immediate comment. But a senior U.S. official rejected the notion that any meeting would have been a furtive attempt by the Trump administration to bypass opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by the U.S. as Venezuela’s rightful president, and to seek some sort of accommodation with Maduro as the year-long campaign to unseat him stalls.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the matter, said the Trump administration is solely interested in discussing with Maduro the terms of his departure and the timing for free and fair elections in Venezuela.
Prince, a major Republican donor, has been accused of acting as a back channel on behalf of Trump before. As Trump was preparing to take office in 2017, Prince met with an official close to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles, islands off the coast of east Africa. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his Russia investigation said the meeting was set up ahead of time with the knowledge of former White House aide Stephen Bannon.
Prince soared to notoriety after Blackwater employees in 2007 shot and killed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square during the Iraq war, casting a light on the role played by private contractors in U.S. military operations overseas.
In the wake of the scandal the company’s name was changed and Prince sold his shares to a private equity fund. Today the former Navy SEAL heads a private equity fund focused on investments in frontier emerging markets. (The Associated Press)
