(WSVN) - A man from Florida will be able to celebrate Christmas with his family after he was released from Venezuela along with several other Americans, bringing a long and difficult journey of hope and despair to an end.
Joseph Cristella was one of six U.S. citizens who stepped off a plane in Texas on Wednesday as part of a prisoner swap deal this week between the U.S. and Venezuela
His cousin, Stephanie Cristella, spoke to 7News to recount the toll the ordeal took on him.
“We were doing whatever we could to bring him home. So, finally, that’s happened. He is home,” she said.
Stephanie said she is excited to see her cousin, whom she hasn’t seen since he was detained in Venezuela in September of last year.
“He has a fiancée who was down – she had to go to Venezuela for a surgery, and her and her family live in Colombia, so he went there to try to be closer to her, from what I’m told, and then got detained,” she said. “They had conspiracy charges against him, against the Venezuelans and, you know, things that were not true or not correct.”
Stephanie said that during the time he was held in prison, his family did all they could to try and bring him back, including reaching out to organizations and news outlets. They even created GoFundMe and Facebook pages devoted to bringing Joey home.
Stephanie said that every day that passed without him on U.S. soil, his family worried for his safety.
“It was upsetting, and it almost was as if nobody cared. Nobody cared about our families who were – or left behind,” she said.
Now Stephanie hopes her cousin can be reunited with his mother.
“She lives in Boise, Idaho, so we’re going to see what we can do about getting her to have a Christmas wish and a Christmas miracle happen for her, so that she doesn’t have to spend this Christmas without him like she did last,” she said.
The Biden administration said more Americans are expected to be released soon.
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