The U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs is in Venezuela amid reports a U.S. detainee attempted suicide.
Roger Carstens, the head of SPEHA, and the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, Jimmy Story, traveled to Caracas “for discussions about the welfare and safety of U.S. nationals in Venezuela,” a State Department official told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
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The family of Matthew Heath, who is being detained by the Maduro regime in Venezuela, said he attempted to end his own life about a week ago. He is one of roughly eight Americans who are currently being detained by the Venezuelan government, including five of the six American oil executives known as the “CITGO 6” and Luke Denman and Airan Berry.
Heath, a Marine veteran who was arrested in September 2020, “was rushed to a military hospital after attempting suicide,” his aunt, Trudy Rutherford, said in a statement last Monday. “Early this morning we received word through private channels – not from our government – that Matthew was rushed to a military hospital after attempting suicide and is now fighting for his life.”
One member of the CITGO 6 and another American were released from Venezuelan detainment in March.
Jonathan Franks, a spokesman for the Heath family, told the Washington Examiner, “Ambassador Carstens’s trip to Caracas is encouraging news. The families made clear last week they wanted to see more action from the government on hostage cases, and this week, Ambassador Carstens traveled to Caracas.”
CNN first reported their trip.
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Earlier this spring, Carstens’s office facilitated the return of Trevor Reed, a former marine who had been wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years. His release was granted in a prisoner exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the United States.
Reed’s deteriorating “health was a source of an intense concern” for President Joe Biden, according to a senior administration official, who said the president had to make “a very hard decision” in agreeing to the deal. Heath’s attempt to take his own life could be a similar nexus point in a renewed effort to secure his release.
