US judge orders $314 million damages to three Americans tortured in Venezuela

U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Miami issued a default judgment ordering Nicolás Maduro, businessman Alex Saab, other Venezuelan officials and the Cartel of the Suns to pay $314 million to three American citizens – Jerrel Kenemore, Jason Saad and Edgar Marval. The men said they were arrested, held as hostages and subjected to beatings, electric shocks, stress positions and psychological abuse while detained by Venezuela’s Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence. They were released in December 2023 as part of a prisoner exchange that freed Saab, who faces money‑laundering charges in the United States. The court applied the U.S. federal Antiterrorism Act, Florida’s Antiterrorism Act and the RICO statutes, calculating damages at $20,127 per day of captivity plus additional amounts for torture, then tripling the total under law. Interim Venezuelan president Delcy Rodríguez was initially named but was removed from the judgment on grounds of head‑of‑state immunity. The ruling, the largest award of its kind to date, found the defendants’ conduct constituted international terrorism and organized criminal activity, though no specific assets have been identified to satisfy the judgment.