A federal judge has awarded $314 million in damages to three Americans who were imprisoned and allegedly tortured by what he described as a ‘criminal enterprise’ led by former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The three men, Jerrel Kenemore, Jason Saad, and Edgar Marval, were released by Maduro’s government in 2023 as part of a prisoner swap with the Biden administration that secured the freedom of Alex Saab, a businessman accused by U.S. officials of acting as a close financial ally of Maduro. The men sued several senior Venezuelan officials last year, including acting President Delcy Rodríguez, alleging they endured physical and psychological torture while detained, including electrocution, stress positions, and beatings.
They said the abuse continues to cause lasting trauma for them and their families. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court are also examining similar allegations. Judge Darrin P.
Gayles in Miami issued a default judgment against Maduro, Saab, and five other individual defendants, as well as the ‘Cartel of the Suns,’ a purported drug-smuggling ring involving top military officials, for failing to respond to the lawsuit. Rodríguez was not included in the ruling after her lawyers entered an appearance in April seeking to dismiss the complaint, arguing that as the duly recognized head of state she is immune from civil action in the U.S., a contention plaintiffs dispute. The case is the largest judgment to date amid a slew of lawsuits filed by Americans imprisoned in Venezuela, all seeking damages under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
According to the complaint, each of the plaintiffs arrived in Venezuela unsuspecting they would be accused of spying and used as bargaining chips in Venezuela’s negotiations with the U.S. Kenemore, who spent 643 days in jail, was a computer professional from Fort Worth, Texas, who had been living in neighboring Colombia with a Venezuelan woman he met online when both were getting over divorces. In 2022, he was abducted by armed gunmen near the border and later handed over to Venezuelan authorities and immediately imprisoned.
Saad, a native of Alabama, had been living in Venezuela working in construction for several years at the time of his arrest, and Marval, who owned a company in Florida and did business in Venezuela, were held by Venezuela’s feared military intelligence police. The Trump administration labeled the ‘Cartel of the Suns’ a foreign terrorist organization ahead of a massive military deployment in the Caribbean that resulted in Maduro facing drug trafficking charges in New York. The former president has denied any wrongdoing, and some observers doubt that corruption that has long festered inside Venezuela’s barracks has led to the creation of a cohesive drug-smuggling group that functions like other Latin American cartels.
.png?trim=0,0,0,0&width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800)
