The parents of a Utah man imprisoned in Venezuela one year ago as of Friday fear their son will die in a Caracas jail with no relief in sight and growing volatility in the South American country.
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has been brought in by Joshua Holt’s family to pry open negotiations with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over a humanitarian release, something Richardson said could possibly lead to dialogue about other strains between the embattled Maduro and President Donald Trump, who has taken a personal interest in Americans held overseas.
The U.S. government has raised Joshua Holt’s case to the highest levels of the Venezuela government and renewed a call Thursday for his release. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that U.S. consular access to Holt is “slow and grudging” and that Venezuela’s refusal to hold a preliminary hearing on his case “casts serious doubts” on the reasons he was detained.
Holt, 25, traveled to Venezuela in June 2016 and married Thamara Candelo, a Venezuelan woman he met online while practicing his Spanish. He had planned to spend several months in Caracas with her and her two daughters to secure their visas so they could move with him to the U.S.
Instead, the couple was as arrested at her family’s Caracas apartment by Venezuelan police who alleged Holt was stockpiling weapons and suggested he was linked to unspecified attempts by the U.S. government to undermine Maduro’s government.
In an interview at their home Wednesday night in the Salt Lake City suburb of Riverton, Laurie and Jason Holt said their son is only guilty only of being in love and unaware of Venezuela’s political instability.
Holt is being held in a prison run by Venezuela’s intelligence police and his parents became even more worried about his future after the recent death of U.S. university student Otto Warmbier, who spent 17 months in detention in North Korea for stealing a propaganda poster. Warmbier died days after returning home to Ohio in a coma.
“I don’t think that I’m going to see him again alive,” said Laurie Holt, crying in her kitchen. “That’s my biggest fear after watching what the family with Otto went through.”
Richardson, who has worked for the release of dozens of Americans held abroad, was brought in by the Holt family about eight months ago to try to quietly open a line of communication with Maduro’s government.
His work complements diplomatic efforts by U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and others. Hatch said this week he’s still hopeful the efforts will pay off.
Richardson has met three times with Venezuela’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Rafael Ramirez, to discuss the case as well as with former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero, who last year attempted to bring Maduro to the negotiating table with his political opponents. Although Holt was not known to be part of that dialogue effort, one of the Venezuelan opposition’s key demands for talks is freedom for political prisoners.
Richardson said he was told through informal channels since the unrest began three months ago that the government was open to him visiting Caracas to make the case for a humanitarian release.