CARACAS/WASHINGTON. – Venezuelan security forces Several Americans have been arrested in the months since Donald Trump took office Military and economic pressure campaign against the government that South American nation, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
Some of the prisoners are standing in front of the door justified criminal charges, but the US government is considering designating two more as such unlawfully imprisoned, the official emphasized.
Among those imprisoned are also: three Venezuelan-Americans with dual passportsas well as two American citizens with no known ties to the country, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has long been used to imprison Americans, regardless of whether they were guilty or innocent of serious crimes Exchange currency in negotiations with Washington, his biggest opponent.
Trump has made the release of Americans detained abroad a priority in both of his presidencies, sending his envoys: Richard Grenell, Days into his second term, he traveled to Venezuela to negotiate a prisoner deal.
The subsequent phase of talks between US and Venezuelan officials led to this the release of 17 American citizens and permanent residents detained in Venezuela.
However, the Trump administration’s decision to do so is Stop these conversations and the start of a military and economic pressure campaign against Maduro ended prisoner releases. The number of Americans imprisoned in Venezuela began to increase again in the northern autumn, said the US official.
This increase coincided with the deployment of a US naval fleet in the Caribbean and the initiation of air strikes against ships who, according to Washington, are transporting drugs on behalf of Maduro.
The United States further intensified its pressure campaign this month and took targeted measures against ships transporting Venezuelan oil and crippled the country’s largest source of exports.
The U.S. Embassy in Colombia, which has jurisdiction over Venezuelan affairs, declined to comment on American detainees in Venezuela, referring questions to the U.S. State Department, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Venezuela’s communications ministry, which handles government press inquiries, did not respond to a request for comment.
The identities of most of the Americans detained are unknown in Venezuela in recent months.
The family of a traveler named James Luckey-Langeof Staten Island, New York, reported him missing shortly after crossing Venezuela’s unstable southern border in early December.
The U.S. official said Luckey-Lange, 28, was among those recently arrested and was one of two Americans arrested They could be described as unjustly detained prisoners.
Luckey-Lange is the son of musician Diane Luckey, who performed as Q Lazzarus and is known for her 1988 single “Goodbye Horses.” A travel enthusiast and amateur martial artist, Luckey-Lange worked in commercial fishing in Alaska after graduating from college, friends and family say.
He undertook it after his mother’s death a long trip through Latin America in 2022. His father died this year.
“He was traveling back and forth, thinking about what to do with his life,” said Eva Aridjis Fuentes, a filmmaker who worked with Luckey-Lange on a documentary about Q Lazzarus. “He suffered a lot of losses.”
At the beginning of December, Luckey-Lange wrote on her blog that she was currently doing it an investigation into gold mining in the Amazon region of Guyana, which borders Venezuela. On December 7, he wrote to a friend who was in an undisclosed location in Venezuela, and the next day he spoke to his family for the last time. That’s what he said He was on his way to Caracas, where he planned to take a flight on December 12 to return home. to New York.
It is not clear whether Luckey-Lange had a visa to enter Venezuela. as the country’s law requires of U.S. citizens.
Her aunt and closest relative, Abbie Luckey, said in a telephone interview that she had not been contacted by U.S. authorities and was seeking information about her whereabouts.
Some U.S. citizens were released from prison in Venezuela this year They described abusive conditions and a lack of procedural guarantees. Many were not charged with a crime and few were convicted.
A Peruvian-American name Renzo Huamanchumo Castillo He said he was arrested last year after traveling to Venezuela to meet his wife’s family. He said he was accused of terrorism and conspiring to assassinate Maduro.
He said the charges were meaningless. “Later we realized that I It was nothing more than a bargaining chip.” he added.
Huamanchomo, 48, said his time in detention at a well-known Venezuelan prison had expired Rodeo I -where he would have met the Argentine gendarme Nahuel Gallo– They beat him often and he was given a liter of cloudy water every day. “It was the worst thing you could imagine” said.
In July He was released as part of a prisoner exchange.
At least two other people with ties to the United States remain detained in Venezuela, according to their families: Aidel Suarez, Permanent resident of the United States, born in Cuba, and Jonathan Torres Duque, Venezuelan-Americans.
Torres’ mother, Rhoda Torres, said her son, now 26, returned to Venezuela after the family lived in the United States for about a decade. She thinks he was arrested. because of his athletic build and American accent, he said.
By Anatoly Kurmanaev, Annie Correal and Edward Wong
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