Aruba Releases Venezuelan Diplomat Sought by US

Aruba's government released a former Venezuelan general who was detained on U.S. drug charges when he arrived to serve as his country's consul on the Dutch Caribbean island, sending him home Sunday night and defusing a diplomatic fight with its neighbor. Aruban authorities had argued previously that Hugo Carvajal, a former military intelligence chief, didn't have immunity from arrest because he had yet to be accredited by the Netherlands, which manages the foreign affairs of its former colony that sits off the coast of Venezuela. But at a hastily called news conference in Aruba's capital, the island's justice minister said Carvajal was being let go because Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans decided Carvajal did have immunity, but also declared him "persona non grata" — a term used by governments to remove foreign diplomats. More….