Venezuelan security forces have detained several Americans since Trump began military campaign: report

Venezuelan security forces have detained several Americans in the past several months since Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to begin attacking suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and interdicting suspected santioned oil tankers departing the country.

The New York Times cited a U.S. official who told the news outlet that the State Department was considering designating two Americans, including one traveler from Staten Island identified as James Luckey-Lange, as wrongfully detained. The identities of the other Americans held in Venezuelan capitivity have not yet been made public. Some of the detained Americans are known to be facing legitimate criminal charges, according to the Times’s source.

The U.S. escalation of political and military pressure on the government of Nicolas Maduro has continued for months as the Trump administration accuses the Maduro govenrment of being controlled by a drug smuggling operation led by Maduro himself, “Cartel de los Soles”.

More than 100 people have been killed in U.S. military strikes targeting small vessels operating in the Caribbean since the campaign began this year. The boats are alleged by the Trump administration, which has not provided evidence publicly, of being used for drug smuggling. The White House has not gone to Congress for authorization to use military force in the region, but efforts to bring War Powers resolutions to curtail the administration’s strikes have not succeeded.

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