How's Joe Biden's oil-for-democracy diplomatic deal going with Venezuela? The one where he would drop sanctions on Venezuela's oil production and Venezuela would hold free and fair elections as well as release its American hostages?

About as well as his Iran deal.

According to the Associated Press:

A California man’s family is pleading for his release after they say he was wrongfully arrested in Venezuela and held for tens of thousands of dollars in ransom just days after the Biden administration eased crippling oil sanctions on the socialist-run government.

Savoi Wright’s Oct. 24 arrest, which had not been previously reported, has become the latest flashpoint in the tenuous relationship between the U.S. and Nicolás Maduro’s government that critics say should lead to a return to sanctions.

But all Wright's family wants is for the 38-year-old businessman to be returned home. They know precious little about the circumstances of his arrest. No criminal charges have been filed, he has not been allowed to see a lawyer and the Venezuelan government hasn’t said where he is being held.

"It’s a nightmare. It’s like you’re watching a horror movie but you’re in it,” his mother, Erin Stewart, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from her Oakland home.

The Maduro regime didn't free its American hostages -- it took another one, some innocent dude who probably should have thought twice before setting foot in the socialist hellhole, but likely an innocent man nevertheless.

Which shows the value upon which the Maduro regime places any agreement with the Americans, even in its own interest.

Most likely, Maduro has calculated that Biden isn't going to do anything about this raw abuse of police-state power. And Joe Biden's conditions for the sanctions' end is nothing he needs to deliver on from his end -- Joe will give him what he wants anyway, because ahead of elections, oil prices are going up. Meanwhile, an extra hostage amounts to an extra bargaining chip for an extra concession. 

What could be better?

He's not going to deliver on any of his promises -- and all it too was a day after the sanctions were lifted for him to prove it.

It goes to show the uselessness of Joe Biden's diplomacy and deal-making with the world's dirtiest dictators. it's not for nothing that experienced diplomats have characterized Biden's incompetent diplomatic team "the three stooges."

Maduro, as buffoonish as he is, would know it better than anyone.

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