Venezuelan law enforcement authorities detained a U.S. sailor and former Navy SEAL last week while the service member was on personal travel, officials said Wednesday.
By Alex Horton
and A U.S. defense official said the sailor, whose identity has not been disclosed publicly, was detained on or about Aug. 30. “The U.S. Navy is looking into this and working closely with the State Department,” said the official, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
The sailor is assigned to a Naval Special Warfare unit, a U.S. official said, and once served as a SEAL but is no longer authorized to wear the coveted trident badge awarded to qualified commandos. Stripping a SEAL of that distinction is somewhat rare and typically the result of disciplinary action or a SEAL falling short of professional standards within a unit, though it is unclear what lead to this specific instance.
It is unclear why the service member went to Venezuela or if he is accused of a crime.
The sailor has both American and Mexican nationalities, and his primary nationality appeared as Mexican, Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, told reporters Thursday. “He entered without any type of documentation or any type of support for what he was doing in the country,” Saab said.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, speaking during a separate news briefing, declined to address specifics about the case.
The sailor’s detention coincides with an increasingly adversarial relationship between Washington and Caracas. This week, a Venezuelan judge ordered the arrest of Edmundo González, who the United States and other countries have said clearly defeated authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro in the presidential election this summer.
“González … won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election, and this arbitrary and politically motivated action is a low point in Nicolás Maduro’s ruthless pursuit of his political opponents following his attempts to steal the July 28 presidential election,” the State Department said in a statement, protesting the warrant for González’s arrest.
CNN first reported the sailor’s detention.
The State Department for years has advised U.S. citizens not to travel to Venezuela, due to the prevalence of violence and the two countries’ complicated diplomatic relationship. “Security forces have detained U.S. citizens for up to five years,” the agency said in its travel advisory. “The U.S. government is not generally notified of the detention of U.S. citizens in Venezuela or granted access to U.S. citizen prisoners there.”
Other U.S. service members have triggered similar diplomatic challenges with adversarial nations in recent months. A U.S. soldier traveled to northeastern Russia in pursuit of his girlfriend, then was arrested and charged with criminal misconduct. He was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison in June.
Travis King, a soldier who had a troubled enlistment while stationed in South Korea, fled to North Korea last year before his scheduled flight back to the United States. He was held there for three months before he was expelled. King is expected to plead guilty to desertion and other charges later this month, his attorney said.
Schmidt reported from Bogotá. Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
