MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Miami ruling links Maduro to “hostage diplomacy,” orders $314 million in damages

Judge Darrin P. Gayles issued a default judgment on Tuesday against Nicolás Maduro, Saab, five other Venezuelan officials, and the so-called Cartel of the Suns

A federal judge in Miami ordered $314 million in damages to be paid to three US citizens who were imprisoned in Venezuela, where they said they were tortured by intelligence services before being freed in a 2023 exchange with Washington for Colombian businessman Alex Saab.

Judge Darrin P. Gayles issued a default judgment on Tuesday against Nicolás Maduro, Saab, five other Venezuelan officials, and the so-called Cartel of the Suns, for failing to respond to the lawsuit filed in 2025. There was no trial: although the defendants were notified, none appeared or mounted a defense. In his 19-page ruling, Gayles described the kidnappings as part of a structure operating, in his words, as a criminal enterprise to sustain Maduro's government.

The plaintiffs are Jerrel Kenemore, Jason Saad, and Edgar José Marval. The lawsuit contends they were arrested and held as hostages to pressure Washington into releasing Saab, identified as one of the Chavista movement's leading financial operators, who had been captured and extradited to Miami on money laundering charges. According to the court filing, the three were held at military counterintelligence facilities in Caracas and subjected to beatings, electric shocks, stress positions, and prolonged isolation. Kenemore was detained for 643 days, Saad for 560, and Marval for 123.

The ruling found that the actions constituted acts of international terrorism under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows US victims to seek damages. The judge compensated each day of captivity at $20,127, plus additional sums for the torture, and then tripled the awards as the law provides. The filing does not identify specific assets to satisfy the judgment.

Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's interim president, was among the defendants but was left out of the ruling after her lawyers moved to dismiss the case, citing immunity as a head of state, according to The Associated Press.

Enforcing the judgment will depend on locating Venezuelan assets that can be seized within US jurisdiction, a process lawyers expect to be lengthy and difficult. That outlook could be affected by Maduro's own situation: he was captured in Caracas on January 3 this year in a US operation and has since been held in federal custody in New York, where he faces drug trafficking charges. Saab, handed over by Rodríguez's government in May, is once again jailed in Miami.

The award ranks among the largest granted so far by US courts in lawsuits brought by citizens imprisoned in Venezuela, exceeding the $153 million a Miami judge awarded in 2023 to lawyer Carlos Marrón.