CARACAS — Venezuelan security forces have detained at least five Americans in recent months as the US has built a pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a US official familiar with the matter told CNN.
The circumstances of the individual cases vary, and some could have been involved in drug smuggling, the official said. US officials are still collecting information about what the Americans were doing in Venezuela and at the time of their detention, the official added.
Trump administration officials believe that the Maduro regime is detaining the Americans to build leverage against the US, the official said, as the pressure campaign against the Venezuelan leader — including the US strikes on drug boats, a CIA strike on Venezuelan port facility and recent oil blockade — has intensified in recent months.
The tactic mirrors that of Russia, Venezuela’s longtime ally, which has detained numerous Americans on Russian soil in recent years to use as leverage in Moscow’s tense relations with the US.
The New York Times was first to report on the recently detained Americans.
The State Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The New York Times reported, citing a US official, that one of the recently detained Americans is James Luckey-Lange, 28, from Staten Island, New York.
Luckey-Lange’s aunt, Abbie Luckey, told CNN she last heard from him on December 8, when he called her from inside Venezuela. The family hasn’t been able to reach him since.
“I feel helpless because I can’t get anyone to even acknowledge to the family that their family member has been detained,” Abbie Luckey said, adding that she has been unable to reach anyone at the State Department to discuss her nephew’s situation.
Luckey-Lange is the son of the late Diane Luckey, a singer known as Q Lazzarus whose single was featured in the film “The Silence of the Lambs.” After her death in 2022, Luckey-Lange has traveled throughout Latin America, inspired by his mother’s previous travel to the region, according to family and friends.
Luckey-Lange planned to fly from Venezuela to the US on December 12 to join a family cruise to the Bahamas, according to Abbie Luckey.
He is a “free spirit” who likes travel and martial arts, said Eva Aridjis Fuentes, who made a documentary about Diane Luckey. The family hopes the State Department will declare Luckey-Lange “unlawfully detained” to add urgency to his case, Aridjis Fuentes said.
Abbie Luckey, who lives in New Jersey, said she was willing to travel to Washington, DC, if she is still unable to reach anyone from the State Department by phone.
“I think it’s unfair that he’s being held as a token for whatever our government is doing with the ships and the building that was just blown up,” she added. Last month the CIA conducted a drone strike on a port facility on Venezuela’s coast, CNN has reported.
Trump administration officials have resisted saying that they are actively seeking regime change in Venezuela but have accused Maduro of being illegitimate and a narco-trafficker. The administration has been increasing pressure on Maduro, including the “blockade” of sanctioned oil vessels and other financial tactics.
In December the State Department announced two sets of sanctions against Maduro’s family members, targeting three of Maduro’s nephews, his sister-in-law and other relatives.
“It is clear that the current status quo with the current Venezuelan regime is intolerable for the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a December press conference when asked about comments from the White House chief of staff that Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”
Asked Thursday about the attack on the Venezuelan port facility, Maduro said it “could be a topic we might discuss in a few days” and broadly sought to assure that Venezuela is safe.
“What I can tell you is that the national defense system, which combines the popular military and police forces, has guaranteed and continues to guarantee the territorial integrity, the peace of the country, and the use and enjoyment of all our territories,” Maduro said during an interview with Ignacio Ramonet, recorded on Wednesday and broadcast Thursday by the state-run channel VTV. “Our people are safe and at peace.”
Venezuela holds hundreds of people as political prisoners, according to human rights activists, some of whom were detained in the aftermath of a 2024 election in which Maduro claimed victory but that independent observers said was undemocratic.
Dozens of people were released from a Venezuelan prison on Thursday, Venezuelan rights groups said.
None of them are American, according to Alfredo Romero, the head of rights group Foro Penal.
By KYLIE ATWOOD and SEAN LYNGAAS/CNN
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Michael Rios contributed to this report.
