Venezuela detained a US Navy sailor

According to RCO News Agency, three American officials, whose identities have not been revealed, told the American channel “CBS News” on Wednesday evening that a sailor of the US Navy was detained in Venezuela while he was on a personal trip. .

The reason for the arrest of this sailor is still unknown.

The US State Department has issued a travel warning to Venezuela, asking citizens to reconsider travel to Venezuela due to “illegal detentions, terrorism, and poor health infrastructure.”

An official told CBS News that the sailor was not on US military-approved leave or on official travel to Venezuela at the time of his arrest.

The United States and Venezuela have tense relations. The American governments have always accused Venezuela of having an “authoritarian” government and recently, after questioning the legitimacy of the elections in this country, they seized the plane of “Nicolas Maduro”, the president of Venezuela, on baseless charges.

Venezuelan elections were held earlier this year, but the Biden administration has questioned the results of these elections. The US State Department claimed in a statement in August that “Nicolas Maduro and his representatives have manipulated the election results, falsely claimed victory and carried out widespread repression to maintain power.”

But last week, Venezuela’s Supreme Court upheld Maduro’s victory in last month’s presidential election, saying voting results published online showed his defeat was fraudulent, however, as CNN reported. , the United States and 10 other Latin American countries have rejected this verdict.

The ruling, attended by senior officials and foreign diplomats, was in response to a request by Maduro to review the total votes, which showed he had won the election by more than a million more votes.

According to the Associated Press news agency, however, the opposition coalition has accused Maduro of trying to rig the election.

The official ballot issued by each voting machine has a code that makes it easy for everyone to verify the results and impossible to falsify or reuse.

Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and the United States called for an “impartial and independent” review of the Venezuelan presidential election votes in a joint statement.

Earlier this week, the United States seized Maduro’s plane, Venezuela’s equivalent of Air Force One, for alleged sanctions violations.

An American official told CNN: “The arrest of this plane sends an important message to Venezuela. It is unusual for the plane of a foreign head of state to be seized for criminal purposes. “We are sending a clear message here that no one is above the law, no one is beyond the reach of US sanctions.”

Venezuela’s latest detention of a US serviceman comes nearly two years after nine Americans, including the Citgo 6, were repatriated from Venezuela by the Biden administration in 2022.

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