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Bloomberg
Venezuela has arrested Americans this year even as that country’s government has made gestures toward improving relations with the US to help ease a humanitarian and political crisis.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed the arrests on Tuesday night but did not identify the Americans, say how many had been detained, or provide any further details, citing privacy concerns.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The detentions were reported earlier by the Associated Press, which said three US citizens had been detained on charges of entering the country illegally. The AP, citing an anonymous source, reported that two of the Americans had been arrested separately in the state of Tachira in March; the third along the border with Colombia in January.
In late June, a US delegation traveled to Caracas to seek the release of other American prisoners and coax President Nicolas Maduro’s government to resume long-dormant political negotiations.
Among the cases they discussed was that of Matthew Heath, a former Marine who has been held in Venezuela since September 2020, according to people with knowledge of the trip.