Washington D.C. – Barron’s, September 05, 2024
A US Navy sailor held in Venezuela since late last month was arrested for entering “without any type of document,” the South American country’s attorney general said Thursday.
An American official on Wednesday announced the sailor had been detained at a time of soaring tensions between Washington and Caracas in the aftermath of disputed elections in Venezuela, with the opposition party claiming it can prove were stolen.
In his first comments on the matter, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said the sailor “entered without any type of document, without any means of subsistence for what he came to do in the country.”
He said the sailor held dual US and Mexican nationalities.
For its part, the Pentagon said the sailor had been in Venezuela on “personal travel.”
“This wasn’t something that was authorized,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.
“The US Navy is looking into this. We’re working with the State Department,” she said, adding that: “Of course, we’d like to see the sailor returned home.”
