Joshua Holt was imprisoned on weapons charges two years ago and in a recent plea for release, he said his life was threatened during riots in the notorious Caracas prison<\/b>
\nA Utah man jailed in Venezuela on weapons charges nearly two years ago was released Saturday after US officials and his family pressed for his freedom from the South American country. \u201cWe are grateful to all who participated in this miracle,\u201d Joshua Holt\u2019s family said in a statement.
President Donald Trump said Holt and his family were expected at the White House on Saturday evening. \u201cGood news about the release of the American hostage from Venezuela.\u2026 The great people of Utah will be very happy!\u201d Trump said in a tweet.
The 26-year-old Holt had gone to Venezuela in June 2016 to marry a woman he met online while he was looking for Spanish-speaking Mormons to help him improve his Spanish. Holt\u2019s wife, Thamara, also was freed, said Senator Orrin Hatch, who said Holt soon would be reunited with \u201chis sweet, long-suffering family\u201d in Riverton, Utah.
Their release came after Tennessee Republican Party Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met President Nicolas Maduro on Friday, two days after the embattled socialist leader kicked out the top US diplomat in the country.
Earlier in May, Holt made an emotional plea for Americans\u2019 help in getting him out of the Caracas jail, saying in a clandestinely shot video that his life was threatened during a riot in the country\u2019s most-notorious prison.
The US government at first avoided ratcheting up public pressure on Venezuela amid already strained relations between the two countries, but eventually raised Holt\u2019s case to the highest levels of the Venezuela government. Hatch and Representative Mia Love also lobbied on behalf of Holt and decried his poor treatment in prison.
Holt had planned to spend several months in Caracas in the summer of 2016 with his new wife, Thamara Candelo, and her and her two daughters, to secure their visas so they could move with him to the US.
Instead, the couple was arrested at her family\u2019s government housing complex on the outskirts of Caracas. Authorities arrested him on June 30,2016 and accused him of using his wife\u2019s flat in Caracas to stockpile weapons and suggesting his case was linked to other unspecified US attempts to undermine President Maduro\u2019s rule amid deep economic and political turbulence.
His wife also was jailed on allegations of being Holt\u2019s accomplice.
Holt\u2019s mother, Laurie Holt, said all along that her son and his wife were wrongly accused. She worked feverishly to bring attention to her son\u2019s incarceration, hosting rallies, fundraisers and doing media interviews.
Laurie Holt said her son has suffered numerous health problems in jail, including kidney stones and respiratory problems. He was depressed and at one point lost so much weight that he dropped several pant sizes, she said.
In their statement, the Holt family said, \u201cWe thank you for your collaboration during this time of anguish. We ask that you allow us to meet with our son and his wife before giving any interviews and statements. We are grateful to all who participated in this miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

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