Washington D.C. – Seattle Times, May 05, 2025
A Washington man has been wrongfully detained in Venezuela for over three months, according to U.S. officials, and Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray have asked the White House to help secure his release.
U.S. Air Force veteran Joseph St. Clair, 33, was last heard from by family members, who live in Kitsap County, before Thanksgiving. His father, Scott St. Clair, said Joseph headed south last year and was working in a language school in Colombia when he was detained by the Venezuelan government.
Joseph completed four tours in Afghanistan and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. He came home with post-traumatic stress disorder, and was seeking further treatment for it in Colombia.
Joseph’s sibling filed a report with the U.S. Embassy in Colombia in January. The next month, Scott received a call from the consulate saying Joseph had been taken as a political hostage by Venezuelan autocrat Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
Americans detained in Venezuela face human rights abuses, according to the State Department. Most do not have access to a lawyer and only limited contact with family members, who worry they could be subject to torture, as past American detainees have said they were. And because the U.S. has no diplomatic presence in Venezuela, release can be a long ways off.
