Amid the fall of Syria's autocrat Bashar Al Assad's government, Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro— who was also one of Al Assad's allies— is reportedly seeking to escape a similar fate. With that in mind, he seems to have adopted a new tactic that may gain him leverage with non-friendly nations: imprisoning foreigners and using them as leverage to negotiate an orderly exit of power.
Infobae journalist Román Lejtman wrote that countries ranging from Argentina, to Colombia, United State believe Maduro is following this playbook, having already rounded up roughly 20 political prisoners who he would be willing to release in exchange for being allowed to depart to Cuba or Russia, the country's two strongest allies, without legal repercussions.
