San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
FAMILY CALLS ON U.S. TO HELP WIN RELEASE OF MAN IN VENEZUELA
Calif. man arrested days after easing of oil sanctions
A California man’s family is pleading for his release after they say he was wrongfully arrested in Venezuela and held for tens of thousands of dollars in ransom just days after the Biden administration eased crippling oil sanctions on the socialist-run government.
Savoi Wright’s Oct. 24 arrest, which had not been previously reported, has become the latest flashpoint in the tenuous relationship between the U.S. and Nicolás Maduro’s government that critics say should lead to a return to sanctions.
But all Wright’s family wants is for the 38-year-old businessman to be returned home. They know precious little about the circumstances of his arrest. No criminal charges have been filed, he has not been allowed to see a lawyer and the Venezuelan government hasn’t said where he is being held.
“It’s a nightmare. It’s like you’re watching a horror movie but you’re in it,” his mother, Erin Stewart, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from her Oakland home.
Wright joins at least seven other U.S. citizens who remain imprisoned in Venezuela. But his arrest stands out because it came on the heels of a politically risky move by President Joe Biden to roll back crippling oil sanctions against the OPEC nation in tandem with an Oct. 17 agreement in Barbados between Maduro’s government and its opponents to hold elections next year.
Almost immediately, Maduro seemed to disavow the deal when the nation’s Supreme Court, which is packed with loyalists, suspended the results of an opposition-run primary won by Maria Corina Machado, a pro-u.s. former lawmaker.
The Biden administration has said it is prepared to
Savoi Wright was arrested Oct. 24 in Venezuela. His family says he has yet to be charged with any crimes.
reinstate sanctions if Maduro wavers from his commitments, which include reversing bans preventing Machado and others from holding office, and starting to release political prisoners and wrongfully detained U.S. citizens by the end of November.
That position was reaffirmed Friday by the U.S. State Department in response to questions about Wright’s arrest.
“Failure to abide by the terms of this arrangement will lead the United States to reverse steps taken,” said spokesperson Matthew Miller.
The State Department has repeatedly warned U.S. citizens not to travel to Venezuela because of the risk of kidnapping and extortion. Sophisticated criminal groups, sometimes in cahoots with government security forces, target unsuspecting men online or in neighboring Colombia with offers of romance.
Wright appears to be only the second U.S. citizen detained since Venezuela last year freed five oil executives from Houston-based Citgo and two other Americans in exchange for the U.S. government’s release of two nephews of Maduro’s wife who had been imprisoned on narcotics charges.
Stewart says she has spoken to her son only once since his ordeal began, after family and friends scrambled to pay a hefty ransom to his captors that they could
barely afford. Wright recounted how he was stopped by police while in a park with a woman who had drugs on her. His family suspects she was part of a set-up.
Later, once police ruled out any criminal wrongdoing by Wright, they determined he had no stamp in his passport and handed him over to immigration authorities for deportation, Stewart says.
It’s unclear what happened next. But other inmates have told his family that Wright is being held in a former textile factoryturned detention center run by Venezuela’s feared military counterintelligence.
Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab didn’t provide any information about Wright’s case.
Wright’s family is speaking out because they feel the U.S. government hasn’t done enough to free him.
After complaining to the FBI that their son was being extorted, they were directed to the State Department, which has limited diplomatic tools to secure the release of Americans in a politically turbulent country where the U.S. Embassy has been shuttered since 2019.
The State Department didn’t respond to emailed questions about whether U.S. officials have raised Wright’s detention with Maduro’s government.