American Freed From Venezuelan Prison Recounts Ordeal After Being Beaten And Accused Of Being a Spy: 'I Thought This Is It'

A 28-year-old American who was detained in Venezuela after crossing the border from Brazil in December said he was beaten, denied food and water, and held in restraints before being transferred to the Rodeo I prison outside Caracas, where he believed he was going to be killed.

James Luckey-Lange said he entered Venezuela on December 7 and was detained the next day after authorities discovered he lacked a required visa. He said he was taken to an army base, accused of being an American spy, and later flown to Caracas. "To catch an American at the frontier, I was served to them on a platter," he said.

Luckey-Lange told The Times that he was taken to military police headquarters, kept in a room with the lights on, and placed in restraints connecting handcuffs to shackles. When he tried to loosen them, he said officers punished him. "They would hit me, beat me, throw me on the ground, reshackle me, rechain me," he said.

He said he went several days without food or water. After about a week, he said he was blindfolded, led to a room at Rodeo I, and made to kneel. "I said, 'Oh. This is it.'"

His detention ended after the U.S. military attacked Caracas on January 3, captured Venezuela's leader Nicolás Maduro, and pressured an interim government to release American detainees, according to the account. Luckey-Lange was freed on January 13. U.S. officials have said all known U.S. citizens held in Venezuela have been released, while advocacy groups estimate hundreds of other political prisoners remain.

Luckey-Lange's account aligns with testimonies from other former American detainees reported previously by The New York Times and with documentation by Foro Penal, a Venezuelan rights group, about conditions at Rodeo I and at military police headquarters.

Earlier reporting by the Times described other Americans held at Rodeo I alleging beatings, pepper spray, and what one detainee called "psychological torture," as Venezuela detained foreign nationals amid disputes over sanctions and diplomacy.

Argentine gendarme Nahuel Gallo, who returned to Argentina this week after more than a year detained in Venezuela, said on Wednesday that Rodeo I is "a place of a lot of psychological torture" and described foreign political prisoners as "bargaining chips," while asking international actors to keep pressure on Venezuela to release others still held.