By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There are at least six Americans wrongfully held in prison in Venezuela, U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell said on Monday, three days after returning to the U.S. from Venezuela having secured the release of six other Americans.
“There is at least six,” Grenell said in an interview for the Megyn Kelly Show on YouTube when asked about the number of Americans still wrongfully held in Venezuela.
Venezuelan officials have accused most Americans detained in his country of extremism and said some were high-level “mercenaries”.
The Venezuelan government regularly accuses members of the opposition and foreign detainees of conspiring with the U.S. to commit extremism. U.S. officials have always denied any plots.
Grenell met Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas last week.
His visit was to secure the release of Americans detained in the country at a time when the Trump administration has vowed to deport immigrants, including from Venezuela and other Latin American countries, who entered the U.S. illegally.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Ross Colvin and Christopher Cushing)
