A former Venezuelan general wanted by the United States on drug trafficking charges has been released from jail in Aruba, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Aruban authorities originally detained Hugo Carvajal, former head of the Venezuelan military-intelligence service, at an airport on the Dutch-owned island after a U.S. warrant was issued.
Venezuelan officials and President Nicolas Maduro reportedly applied severe economic pressure on Aruba and the Netherlands to grant Carvajal diplomatic immunity. An unnamed U.S. official in the Journal report was not pleased:
A senior U.S. official said the U.S. had been blindsided by the Dutch decision to free Mr. Carvajal. The official expressed enormous frustration that a man the U.S. considers a dangerous criminal is returning to freedom in Caracas.
"We don't agree with or understand the reasoning of the government of the Netherlands," said the official. "We totally disagree with their interpretation of the Vienna convention that Carvajal had to be released."
The official said that since the arrest, Venezuela had exerted enormous pressure on Aruba, threatening to shut commercial air service to the island, which Arubans say depends on large numbers of Venezuelan tourists.
Meanwhile, the U.S. official said Venezuela's state-owned oil company also warned it would walk away from a refinery it runs on the neighboring island Curaçao, which is also Dutch, threatening 8,000 jobs.
The former general is accused of facilitating the smuggling of thousands of pounds of cocaine into America and assisting a Colombian rebel group with drug trafficking, weapons, and logistical help.
The drug trade has led to an upsurge in violence in Central America, in part fueling the current immigration troubles at the U.S. border.