The Venezuelan government said that President Hugo Chavez, who takes every opportunity to rail against the West, and even sometimes puts his gripes into song, helped to free the US hikers in Iran.
The two Americans, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, had been arrested with Sarah Shourd, on the Iranian border. The three said that they were hiking in Kurdistan, in Iraq, and were waved over by a soldier who then arrested them. The soldier, it turned out, was Iranian, and they'd crossed into his territory.
The two men were convicted of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison. They were released this week after putting up a $1 million bail — $500,000 for each of them. Their companion, Sarah Shourd, had been released a year earlier on the same conditions.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/que-pasa/did-chavez-help-free-us-hikers
