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.
Six American prisoners were freed from Venezuela in late January, their freedom secured after an unusual and highly public visit by U.S. special presidential envoy Richard Grenell with Maduro. The St. Clair family learned from the freed hostages that Joseph was also detained.
"Imagine if they hadn't been released, we still wouldn't know nothing," Scott St. Clair said.
Since then, the St. Clairs have been navigating U.S. foreign policy and learning the intricacies of the Venezuelan government and its treatment of political detainees.
"How do you even begin to do something to try to help your kid?" Scott said. "Since (Jan. 31), there's been not one telephone call, not one picture (of Joe) ... no acknowledgment from Venezuela, no formal charge papers."
The State Department determined in March that Joseph was wrongfully detained, likely in September, and is believed to be held in a high-security Caracas prison called Rodeo One.
Americans freed in January told The New York Times that they shared tiny cells on a floor filled with dozens of other foreigners in the prison. The guards covered their faces with ski masks and wore nametags with aliases like "Hitler" and "Demon."
A statement from the U.S. State Department said the country "is actively working to secure the release of Joseph St. Clair and all Americans unjustly detained in Venezuela." The statement said Secretary of State Marco Rubio has determined several Americans are being wrongfully detained by Maduro but did not say how many.
"We have made multiple requests for consular access, which have all been ignored," the statement reads. "We will continue to pressure the Maduro regime at the highest levels to release all unjustly detained individuals."
The State Department strongly advises that Americans do not travel to Venezuela.
In Murray and Cantwell's letter sent on Friday to President Donald Trump, they urge the president to get personally involved in pressing for Joseph's release. On Monday afternoon, Cantwell's office stated it has not received a response from the White House or State Department.
"Each day he is held, it prolongs his suffering, and the suffering of his friends and family," the letter states.
The St. Clair family is meeting with other members of the Trump administration this week, after meeting with Murray and Cantwell last week while involved in a campaign for Bring Our Families Home.
"I've had to go into get-it-done mode and just fight, fight every day, every day," Scott said. "Sometimes it feels like we're getting nowhere."
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