Earlier this week the Pentagon had a foreign crisis on its hands after a group of Marines and Navy personnel were assaulted by a Turkish mob while on port liberty from the USS Wasp warship, which was docked at Izmir in Turkey.
Ten Turks from a nationalist political party are reportedly in custody. But now another foreign crisis has emerged involving US personnel, this time in Venezuela. A US Navy sailor has been detained by Venezuelan security services after traveling there on personal business.
Two US defense officials have confirmed the unidentified sailor's detention by Venezuelan law enforcement, and the individual has been in custody since on or about Aug.30, the Pentagon revealed.
"The U.S. Navy is looking into this and working closely with the State Department," the Pentagon has said in statement.
An official described that "the service member was neither on official travel nor did they have authorized leave to visit Venezuela," according to Associated Press.
The various US military branches regularly brief their personnel on where or where they cannot visit while on leave or liberty. Certain places even in Mexico have long been off-limits (for example Tijuana, known as a high-crime area where US military members are often targeted).
Venezuela has also long been off limits for travel by active duty American military members, especially after the last several years of sporadic unrest and resulting crackdowns by Maduro security forces.
A recent State Department warning has said that all US citizens should avoid travel to Venezuela:
The State Department advises Americans against traveling to Venezuela, warning that “there is a high risk of wrongful detention of U.S. nationals.”
“Security forces have detained U.S. citizens for up to five years,” the travel advisory for Venezuela says. “The U.S. government is not generally notified of the detention of U.S. citizens in Venezuela or granted access to U.S. citizen prisoners there.”
Just this week, the US Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, Treasury, and Justice announced the seizure of Nicolás Maduro's jet from a runway in the Dominican Republic. US pilots subsequently flew it to Florida.
The US said the $13 million Dassault Falcon 900EX private jet was obtained illegally from a US seller, in violation of sanctions laws.
Maduro shot back that Washington is engaged in "piracy". The statement issued from Caracas said: "Once again, the authorities of the United States of America are engaged in a criminal practice that cannot be described as anything other than piracy." As US-Caracas relations worsen, there could be more detentions of Americans which emerge in the headlines of the coming months, particularly after Washington has charged that Maduro "stole" the recent national election.