US Sailor Detained in Venezuela

Venezuelan authorities have detained a U.S. Navy sailor visiting the country under unclear circumstances.

In an emailed press statement, the U.S. Navy told FreeBase News that the sailor was detained by Venezuelan law enforcement authorities on Aug. 30. The Navy said it’s working with the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense more broadly to investigate the incident.

In their own emailed press statement, the Department of Defense said the sailor was “personal travel” to the country at the time of his arrest.

“We are tracking closely the detention of a U.S. military member in Venezuela,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters at a Wednesday press conference. “We are closely monitoring the situation, seeking additional information.”

Neither the State Department or the Defense Department have identified the detained sailor at this time.

“Oftentimes when it comes to individuals who are detained overseas, due to privacy considerations, there’s not much I can say from this podium,” Miller said Wednesday.

It’s unclear why this sailor was in Venezuela, at a time of particularly strained relations with the United States.

The U.S. government has contested Venezuela’s most recent July 28 presidential election, in which the Venezuelan government called the contest for incumbent Nicolás Maduro.

Strained U.S.-Venezuelan relations go beyond this latest election. The U.S. government disputed the last round of Venezuelan presidential elections in February 2018, in which the Venezuelan government declared Maduro had won his second term as president.

By January 2019, the Venezuelan National Assembly—then led by Maduro’s political opposition—declared the 2018 election results invalid and named National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó to serve as interim president. The U.S. government was among several nations to back Guaidó’s claim to the Venezuelan presidency, but Maduro retained control of the Venezuelan state institutions.

The U.S. government has long regarded Maduro as a repressive leader, and first sanctioned his government in 2014. Those sanctions increased as the U.S. backed Guaidó’s claims to the presidency in January 2019.

In March 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice named Maduro in a criminal indictment, alleging he and other Venezuelan leaders have been complicit in trafficking cocaine into the United States, in partnership with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). FARC is a guerilla faction that’s battled on-and-off with the U.S.-backed Colombian government since the 1960s.

Last week, the U.S. government seized a Dassault Falcon 900EX jet, which allegedly operated on behalf of the Maduro government. U.S. officials seized the jet from an airstrip in the Dominican Republic, citing sanctions and export control laws against Venezuela.

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