Venezuela Holds Record Number of U.S. Citizens in Prison, Prompting State Department to Issue Highest Level Travel Advisory

Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian regime in Venezuela is holding a record number of American citizens in jail, more than any other country in the world, a new State Department report reveals.

The recent report does not reveal exactly how many U.S. citizens are behind bars unjustly in the South American country, but at least eight are publicly known, ABC News reports.

“There are more U.S. citizens being held in prisons in Venezuela than any other country,” said Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s special presidential envoy for hostage recovery. “And these are not people that did anything wrong. Their only issue is that they are American. Venezuela takes more Americans than any other country for that sole reason.”

The announcement came as the State Department assigned its highest travel advisory level— do not travel— for Venezuela, citing in its media release the “severe risks” of wrongful detention, torture while in custody, kidnapping and other threats. The advisory even urged citizens this month to prepare a will if they plan to travel there.

The warnings said that U.S. citizens are at “extreme risk of detention” when entering Venezuela and could be “unjustly charged with serious crimes, like terrorism, and detained for a long period of time. “There is no safe way for Americans to travel to Venezuela,” the alert said.

The State Department has been warning U.S. citizens against traveling to Venezuela for years, issuing its highest level advisory, 4, at least since March 2019 when it announced the temporary suspension of operations of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. Travel advisories that rise to levels 3 and 4 are reviewed every six months at a minimum, CBS News reports.

According to the State Department, detentions of U.S. citizens have happened when people accidentally cross into Venezuela from neighboring countries, where borders may not be clearly marked. The travel advisory says that the warning doesn’t apply only to U.S.-born citizens, but also to naturalized citizens, dual nationals and lawful permanent residents.

“No trip is worth the price of freedom,” the department adds.

Making matters even more complicated, the Venezuelan government does not report detentions to the U.S. government, making it impossible for the U.S. to visit those citizens or intervene. U.S. citizens in Venezuela also cannot contact family members or private attorneys, the State Department said.

Interestingly, the reissued warning comes after the Trump administration’s Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Richard Grenell made a high-profile trip to Venezuela, where he met with Maduro face to face. At the end of the visit, he returned with six freed Americans.

Furthermore, last week, Grenell announced in a post on X that another American detained in Venezuela, U.S. Air Force veteran Joseph St. Clair, had been released. The Trump administration has said it has offered no concessions to the Maduro regime in exchange for freeing U.S. nationals.

The Trump administration has ramped up its disdain for the Maduro regime, seeking to tie him to the Tren de Aragua as it invokes wartime authority to deport undocumented people with little or no due process. However, a recent intelligence memo first shared with The New York Times found that there is likely no direct connections between the Venezuelan government and the gang’s operations in the U.S.