Venezuela detains Americans amid growing US pressure

Some of the detainees face legitimate criminal chargeswhile the US government is considering declaring at least two prisoners unjustly detained, according to the official.

Among those arrested are three people with double passport Venezuelan-American and 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 Venezuelan president, Nicolas Madurohas long used detained Americans, guilty or innocent of serious crimes, as bargaining chips in negotiations with Washington, its greatest adversary.

The president Donald Trump He has made the release of Americans detained abroad a priority in both of his presidencies, sending his envoy, Richard Grenell, to Venezuela to negotiate a prisoner deal days into his second term.

The period of talks that followed between US and Venezuelan officials resulted in the release of 17 US citizens and permanent residents detained in Venezuela.

But the Trump administration’s decision to suspend These conversations to favor a campaign of military and economic pressure against Maduro put an end to the releases of prisoners.

The number of Americans detained in Venezuela began to increase again in the fall, according to the US official.

This increase coincided with the deployment of a US navy in the Caribbean and the beginning of air attacks against vessels that, according to Washington, transport drugs on the orders of Maduro.

The United States further intensified its pressure campaign in December, targeting oil tankers carrying Venezuelan oil and paralyzing the country’s largest source of exports.

The detention of Americans in Venezuela could complicate US military operations in and around the country, current and former commanders said, although US intelligence officials typically take the safety of US citizens into account in their planning for missions abroad.

“Maduro is playing with fire by trying this approach with the Trump administration,” said James Stavridis, a retired admiral and former head of the Pentagon’s Southern Command.

“It will only prompt Trump to further escalate the offensive and is unlikely to make him back down in the slightest.”

The U.S. Embassy in Colombia, which handles Venezuelan affairs, declined to comment on American detainees in Venezuela and referred questions to the U.S. State Department.

The State Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Venezuela’s Communications Ministry, which handles government press requests, did not respond to a request for comment.

The identity of the majority of Americans detained in Venezuela in recent months is unknown.

The family of a traveler named James Luckey-Lange, from Staten Island, New York City, reported him missing shortly after he crossed Venezuela’s volatile southern border in early December.

The U.S. official said Luckey-Lange, 28, is among those recently jailed and is one of two Americans who may be designated as unjustly detained.

Luckey-Lange is the son of musician Diane Luckey, who performed as Q Lazzarus and is known for her 1988 single “Goodbye Horses.”

Luckey-Lange, a travel enthusiast and amateur martial arts fighter, worked in commercial fishing in Alaska after graduating from college, according to her friends and family.

In 2022, after the death of his mother, he embarked on a long journey through Latin America.

His father passed away in 2025.

“He’s been traveling, trying to decide what to do with his life,” said Eva Aridjis Fuentes, a filmmaker who worked with Luckey-Lange on a documentary about Q Lazzarus.

“He has suffered a lot of losses.”

Luckey-Lange wrote on his blog in early December that he was researching gold mining in the Amazon region of Guyana, bordering Venezuela.

On December 7, he wrote to a friend that he was in an unspecified location in Venezuela, and that he last spoke to his family the next day.

He said he was headed to the capital, Caracas, where he planned to take a flight on December 12 that would eventually take him home to New York.

It is unclear 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 has not been contacted by U.S. officials and is seeking information about her whereabouts.

Some US citizens who were released from prison in Venezuela in 2025 have described abusive conditions and a lack of due process.

Many were not charged with any crime and few were convicted.

A Peruvian-American named Renzo Huamanchumo Castillo said he was detained in 2024 after traveling to Venezuela to meet his wife’s family and accused of terrorism and plotting to kill Maduro.

He said the charges were meaningless.

“Later we realized it was just a symbol,” he added.

Huamanchumo, 48, said he was frequently beaten and given a liter of cloudy water each day while detained in a notorious Venezuelan prison called Rodeo I.

“It was the worst thing you can imagine,” he said.

He was freed in a prisoner exchange in July.

At least two other people with ties to the United States remain imprisoned in Venezuela, according to their relatives:

Aidel Suárez, a permanent resident of the United States born in Cuba, and Jonathan Torres Duque, a Venezuelan-American.

Torres’ mother, Rhoda Torres, said her son, now 26, had returned to Venezuela after the family had lived in the United States for about a decade.

She believed he was stopped because of his athletic build and American accent, she said.

“They said he was an American spy,” said Torres, who indicated that his son was detained with foreigners of many nationalities.

“There are still many there,” he added.

“They are all political prisoners. This has to stop.”