Caracas, Venezuela • A powerful U.S. senator traveled to Venezuela on Wednesday as pressure mounted on President Nicolas Maduro to hand over a Utah man jailed in the turbulent South American country for nearly two years.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was to meet with members of the government and opposition, a spokesman for his office said. He didn’t provide further details.

The Senate’s No. 2 Democrat is also expected to meet with Maduro to discuss the imprisonment of Joshua Holt, who is being held in a Caracas prison along with several top government opponents while awaiting a trial on what the U.S. has called trumped-up weapons charges.

The rare visit comes as the Trump administration weighs an embargo on Venezuela’s oil shipments on top of sanctions it already has imposed on dozens of top officials, including Maduro himself, for what the U.S. considers Venezuela’s slide into a dictatorship.

“The Venezuelan people continue to suffer immensely under the Maduro regime’s repressive actions,” Durbin recently tweeted, supporting sanctions while condemning Maduro’s “criminal regime and its complete disregard for democracy.”

Durbin’s visit follows weeks of backchannel talks over Holt between representatives of the two countries in Caracas and Washington.

Holt, 25, traveled to Venezuela in June 2016 to marry a fellow Mormon he met online practicing his Spanish. The couple were arrested during a police raid on the housing complex where she had lived.

Venezuelan authorities alleged Holt was stockpiling “weapons of war.”

U.S. officials have repeatedly demanded Holt’s release on humanitarian grounds, considering the charges against him and his wife, Thamara Candelo, to be politically motivated.

Maduro is expected to win a second term as president in a May 20 election that the U.S. and Venezuela’s largest opposition parties have rejected as being rigged in his favor, leaving the South American leader few if any allies in Washington from either political party.

Durbin played a key role in Cuba’s 2014 release of American Alan Gross, who was held in prison for five years on the communist island.

The Associated Press first reported behind-the-scenes dialogue to win Holt’s freedom. Caleb McCarry, a top Republican congressional staffer who has known Maduro for 15 years, traveled to Caracas in February to meet with the Venezuelan leader and first lady Cilia Flores to press for Holt’s release.</s>CARACAS, Venezuela — A powerful U.S. senator has travelled to Venezuela as pressure mounts on President Nicolas Maduro to release a Utah man jailed for nearly two years in the volatile South American country.

A spokesman for Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois arrived Wednesday to meet with members of the government and opposition. He didn't provide further details.

But the Senate's No. 2 Democrat is expected to meet with Maduro to discuss the imprisonment of Joshua Holt, who is awaiting a trial on what the U.S. considers trumped up weapons charges.

The rare visit comes as the Trump administration weighs a crippling embargo on Venezuela's oil shipments on top of sanctions it already has imposed on dozens of officials.

Durbin's meeting follows weeks of backchannel talks between the two countries over Holt.</s>U.S. Senator Dick Durbin is in Venezuela to meet with government and opposition leaders, his spokesman said.

Durbin, of Illinois, is the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate. His spokesman, Ben Marter, said he wouldn’t comment on the agenda or the purpose of the trip.

President Donald Trump’s administration is weighing whether to ratchet up sanctions against Venezuela, and officials have said that could include banning oil imports from and exports to the nation.

Meetings are planned this month between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his counterparts from the European Union, Canada, the U.K. and many Latin American countries to coordinate efforts to tighten economic pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

Trump last month banned U.S. purchases of a cryptocurrency the Venezuela government is rolling out as part of the campaign. That is in addition to sanctions on Venezuelan officials accused of corruption and rights violations.

The U.S. is attempting to free Joshua Holt, a Utah man imprisoned since 2016 in Venezuela on weapons charges that his family says are bogus.</s>CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A powerful U.S. senator traveled to Venezuela Wednesday as pressure mounted on President Nicolas Maduro to hand over a Utah man jailed in the turbulent South American country for nearly two years.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was to meet with members of the government and opposition, a spokesman for his office said. He didn’t provide further details.

The Senate’s No. 2 Democrat is also expected to meet with Maduro to discuss the imprisonment of Joshua Holt, who is being held in a Caracas prison along with several top government opponents awaiting a trial on what the U.S. has called trumped-up weapons charges.

The rare visit comes as the Trump administration weighs an embargo on Venezuela’s oil shipments on top of sanctions it already has imposed on dozens of top officials, including Maduro himself, for what the U.S. considers Venezuela’s slide into a dictatorship.

“The Venezuelan people continue to suffer immensely under the Maduro regime’s repressive actions,” Durbin recently tweeted, supporting sanctions while condemning Maduro’s “criminal regime and its complete disregard for democracy.”

Durbin’s visit follows weeks of backchannel talks over Holt between representatives of the two countries in both Caracas and Washington.

Last week, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, also spoke to Maduro by phone to press for Holt’s release, according to a Venezuelan official with knowledge of the conversation but who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. Hatch’s office refused to comment on the senator’s efforts to secure Holt’s release but said they are unrelated to Durbin’s travel plans.

Holt, 25, traveled to Venezuela in June 2016 to marry a fellow Mormon he met online practicing his Spanish. The couple was arrested during a police raid on the housing complex where she had lived. Venezuelan authorities alleged Holt was stockpiling “weapons of war.”

U.S. officials have repeatedly demanded Holt’s release on humanitarian grounds, considering the charges against him and his wife, Thamara Caleno Candelo, to be politically motivated.

Maduro is expected to win a second term as president in a May 20 election that the U.S. and Venezuela’s largest opposition parties have rejected as being rigged in Maduro’s favor, leaving the South American leader few if any allies in Washington from either political party.

Durbin played a key role in Cuba’s 2014 release of American Alan Gross, who was held in prison for five years on the communist island.

The Associated Press first reported behind-the-scenes dialogue to win Holt’s freedom. Caleb McCarry, a top Republican congressional staffer who has known Maduro for 15 years, traveled to Caracas in February to meet with the Venezuelan leader and First Lady Cilia Flores to press for Holt’s release.

That dialogue prompted a visit to Washington by a trusted ally of Maduro, Gov. Rafael Lacava of Carabobo state, to discuss Holt with lawmakers.

By SCOTT SMITH and JOSHUA GOODMAN, Associated Press

Smith reported this story in Caracas and Goodman reported from Bogota, Colombia

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>BOGOTA — Texas Republican congressman Pete Sessions quietly visited Venezuela this week and met with President Nicolas Maduro at the invitation of the socialist government in a peacebuilding mission that has raised some eyebrows in Washington.

It’s not clear what prompted the previously undisclosed visit by the Dallas congressman to the politically turbulent South American nation.

Caroline Booth, a spokeswoman for the congressman, said it was related to work Sessions has done over the past year as an intermediary to resolve issues in Venezuela, but she declined to elaborate. She added that as chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee he routinely works to ensure countries adhere to international standards and the rule of law.

The two-day trip came as Maduro’s government is making a full-court press to prevent the Trump administration from imposing crippling oil sanctions on the OPEC nation for what the United States considers Maduro’s flaunting of human rights and democratic norms.

A U.S. official said the private trip was not taxpayer funded and that Sessions had received a letter of invitation from the Venezuelan government and met with Maduro. He said State Department officials played no role in organizing the trip, which ended Tuesday and added that they were not invited to sit in on Sessions’ meetings as they were by Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, who arrived in Caracas on Wednesday for his own meetings with Maduro and government officials.

The U.S. official agreed to give details on Sessions’ trip only on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly.

Durbin is in Venezuela to push for the release of a Utah man, Joshua Holt, who has been jailed in Caracas for nearly two years on what the U.S. considers trumped-up weapons charges. The senator also planned to deliver a stern message to Maduro that he must guarantee upcoming the presidential election will be free and transparent.

Sessions doesn’t have other obvious links to Venezuela, besides writing a letter in 2004 to the country’s banking regulators in support of financier Allen Stanford, a former Sessions donor who in 2012 was convicted in Texas and sentenced to 110 years in prison for running a $7 billion-plus Ponzi scheme.

He also voted in favour of a bipartisan House bill last year directing the Trump administration to secure international support for a humanitarian package for Venezuela and to work with regional governments to ensure protection for human rights and transparent elections in the country.

Sessions has been in Congress since 1997, representing a wealthy Dallas district that is home to Exxon and other oil companies that were once major players in Venezuela’s oil industry but have since ended or dramatically reduced their investments in the country as oil production has collapsed and the bankrupt Maduro government falls behind on payments.

Texas is also home to Citgo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company. Last year, several of the company’s executives, including five who hold U.S. passports, were arrested by Venezuelan authorities in a corruption investigation that critics say is politically motivated.

Sessions, whose father is former FBI Director William Sessions, hasn’t faced a serious challenge for re-election in more than a decade and didn’t even have a Democratic opponent in 2016. But his district narrowly supported Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, prompting speculation that it could flip this cycle.

Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.</s>BOGOTA, Colombia (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Texas Republican congressman Pete Sessions quietly visited Venezuela this week and met with President Nicolas Maduro at the invitation of the socialist government in a peacebuilding mission that has raised some eyebrows in Washington.

It’s not clear what prompted the previously undisclosed visit by the Dallas congressman to the politically turbulent South American nation.

Caroline Booth, a spokeswoman for the congressman, said it was related to work Sessions has done over the past year as an intermediary to resolve issues in Venezuela, but she declined to elaborate. She added that as chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee he routinely works to ensure countries adhere to international standards and the rule of law.

The two-day trip came as Maduro’s government is making a full-court press to prevent the Trump administration from imposing crippling oil sanctions on the OPEC nation for what the United States considers Maduro’s flaunting of human rights and democratic norms.

A U.S. official said the private trip was not taxpayer funded and that Sessions had received a letter of invitation from the Venezuelan government and met with Maduro. He said State Department officials played no role in organizing the trip, which ended Tuesday and added that they were not invited to sit in on Sessions’ meetings as they were by Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, who arrived in Caracas on Wednesday for his own meetings with Maduro and government officials.

The U.S. official agreed to give details on Sessions’ trip only on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly.

Durbin is in Venezuela to push for the release of a Utah man, Joshua Holt, who has been jailed in Caracas for nearly two years on what the U.S. considers trumped-up weapons charges. The senator also planned to deliver a stern message to Maduro that he must guarantee upcoming the presidential election will be free and transparent.

Sessions doesn’t have other obvious links to Venezuela, besides writing a letter in 2004 to the country’s banking regulators in support of financier Allen Stanford, a former Sessions donor who in 2012 was convicted in Texas and sentenced to 110 years in prison for running a $7 billion-plus Ponzi scheme.

He also voted in favor of a bipartisan House bill last year directing the Trump administration to secure international support for a humanitarian package for Venezuela and to work with regional governments to ensure protection for human rights and transparent elections in the country.

Sessions has been in Congress since 1997, representing a wealthy Dallas district that is home to Exxon and other oil companies that were once major players in Venezuela’s oil industry but have since ended or dramatically reduced their investments in the country as oil production has collapsed and the bankrupt Maduro government falls behind on payments.

Texas is also home to Citgo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company. Last year, several of the company’s executives, including five who hold U.S. passports, were arrested by Venezuelan authorities in a corruption investigation that critics say is politically motivated.

Sessions, whose father is former FBI Director William Sessions, hasn’t faced a serious challenge for re-election in more than a decade and didn’t even have a Democratic opponent in 2016. But his district narrowly supported Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, prompting speculation that it could flip this cycle.

Rep. Sessions is up for re-election in November.

After 21 years in Congress, he seems unfazed by Democrats’ who are energized this year. “I’ve not lost an hour’s sleep yet. I’ve not been worried about it. But this will be a vigorous debate.”

Congressman Sessions says his message to his Republican supporters is about the booming U.S. economy under President Donald Trump. “America’s going to go from 24th in the world to doing business to 1st. We’re going to make America strong. We’re going to bring back economically the American people, the American free-enterprise system. And we’re going to take people off welfare and allow them to move to work at their rate.”

Sessions says one of his top priorities is safety — for the military, law enforcement, and students.

Polls show a majority of Americans support keeping guns away from the mentally ill.

When asked if he would support a bill that would do that he said he would if it includes due process rights for individuals.

He says it was a lack of due process that led him and the Republican-led Congress to wipe out an Obama administration rule aimed at keeping guns away from the mentally ill.
United States Senator Dick Durbin visits Venezuela to negotiate the release of Joshua Holt, who has been detained for two years awaiting trial on a weapons charge. The United States has been critical of his prosecution.