‘Wrongfully detained’: Air Force veteran, Navy SEAL are among group of Americans being held in Venezuelan prisons

WASHINGTON — Standing in a narrow alley — before a 20-foot-high mural of their son — Scott and Patti St. Clair made a special plea to President Donald Trump and Congress to secure the safe release of Joe St. Clair, a combat-disabled veteran who the U.S. government has determined is unlawfully held in a Venezuelan prison.

Patti St. Clair, holding a microphone by a portable speaker, looked at the TV cameras as she described her son’s detention in the prison called Rodeo One that has been condemned by human rights groups for abuse violations.

The St. Clairs, who live in Washington state, and several other families gathered last week in what has become known as Freedom Alley — a narrow lane between two buildings in Georgetown — to launch a media campaign called “Bring Our Families Home” to raise awareness about Americans detained and held against their will in foreign countries.

Air Force veteran Joe St. Clair, their 33-year-old son, was traveling as a tourist near the Venezuelan border in October 2024, when he and a friend from Colombia were arrested by Venezuelan authorities, who transported them across the border to a Venezuelan prison, his family said.

“We learned that Joe decided to take a trip near the border with one of his friends to visit [the friend’s] family member and got too close to the border and got abducted by the Venezuelan police,” Scott St. Clair explained. “They were shaken down, questioned and searched. All their possessions were taken.”

St. Clair said he was told the border is “fluid,’‘ and that Venezuelan authorities detain Americans as bargaining chips to gain leverage against the U.S. to ease restrictions placed on the country. Joe is a linguist who served as a tech sergeant in the Air Force until 2019. He was honorably discharged after nine years of service, his family said.

“Joe St. Clair endured four combat tours in Afghanistan to protect this country. Now he is the one who needs protection,” Patti St. Clair said.

Wilbert Joseph Castaneda, 37, is an active-duty Navy SEAL also detained by Venezuela authorities in 2024 while visiting the country as a tourist, said Christian Castaneda, his brother. Wilbert is a petty officer first class who has served in the military for nearly 20 years.

“Wilbert called us right after he was arrested to let us know he was in trouble. We’ve heard nothing from him since,” said Christian Castaneda, who traveled from his home in Arizona to take part in the unveiling of the mural in Georgetown.

Nine U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents remain in Venezuelan custody, according to the State Department.

“We have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. [President Nicolas] Maduro has targeted, arrested, and jailed U.S. citizens under questionable circumstances and without proper process — this is unacceptable, and he must release them immediately. The Department of State will continue to work to secure their release,” the agency said.

The State Department in March designated Castaneda and St. Clair “wrongfully detained.” It is formal recognition that an American citizen is being unlawfully held in a foreign nation, according to the State Department.

In Venezuela, hostage diplomacy has become a common tactic employed by the government, said Elizabeth Richards, director of hostage advocacy and research at the James W. Foley Foundation, which advocates for families of Americans wrongfully detained or held hostage in foreign countries.

The foundation communicates with the State Department, including the consular affairs and special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, to assist families in gaining the release of detained loved ones. Roger Carstens, who served as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs at the State Department from 2020 to 2025, is on the foundation board.

There are now 46 publicly disclosed hostage and wrongful detention cases of Americans held in foreign nations, according to the foundation.

“My brother Wilbert was visiting Venezuela as a tourist over Labor Day, when he was forcibly disappeared,” Castaneda said. “He was picked up from his hotel room. Masked armed men broke his door open and took him to a detention facility.”

Venezuelan authorities accused Castaneda of being part of a plot to overthrow the government, an accusation that he denied. He was incarcerated at El Heliocide in Caracas but has been moved between prisons in Venezuela, his brother said.

Castaneda was on personal travel in Venezuela, according to the White House. His family said he was visiting the country with his girlfriend, who is Venezuelan.

David Guillaume of Florida shared a cell with Joe St. Clair at Rodeo One prison and was among six Americans freed Jan. 31 by the Maduro government, after the Venezuelan president met with a Trump administration official. Guillaume works as a nurse and has never been in the military.

“There are still Americans who need to come home,” Trump said in a presidential proclamation in March. “The United States will not tolerate the unlawful detention of our citizens. I will continue to bring more Americans back to their loved ones, and I will not back down until they are home.”

Guillaume was arrested in Venezuela in September 2024 when he traveled to the country with his fiancée, who is Venezuelan. His fiancee, who is 25, is still being held, he said.

“I said, ‘Hey, I am here to learn about and see the culture’,” Guillaume said. “It was entrapment. We were condemned from Day 1. If you’re American, they think you’re a spy.”

After his release from Rodeo One prison, Guillaume told U.S. officials about the other Americans still held at the large prison complex near Caracas. He also spoke with the St. Clair family about their son.

“Joe has kept his mental composure through this ordeal. It came from his survival training in the military,” said Guillaume, St. Clair’s cell mate for six months. “Joe emerged as a leader. He helped other prisoners trying to cope with the situation.”

But conditions at most Venezuelan prisons are harsh and life threatening from overcrowding, violence, food shortages, poor sanitary conditions and inadequate medical care, according to the State Department.

“Joe was positively identified as being alive, healthy and detained in the same facility as the hostages released,” said Scott St. Clair, who remains in communication with Adam Boehler, special envoy for hostage affairs. “I just want my son to hang on and know we’re fighting for him.”

Bring Our Families Home unveiled the mural that spanned the side of one building and featured larger-than-life portraits of 11 Americans missing in Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, Russia, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates, according to the organization.

They include three individuals with military backgrounds — St. Clair, Castaneda and Robert Gilman, an ex-Marine and schoolteacher imprisoned in Russia.

Gilman was traveling to Moldova for a teaching job when he was arrested by Russian authorities as he tried to visit the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, according to his family.

Ten of the 11 Americans whose portrait photos make up the mural have the legal designation of wrongful detention, according to the foundation that was formed in 2014 following the death of journalist James Foley, who was kidnapped and killed by Islamic State militants while reporting in Syria.

Gilman’s family has been seeking the same wrongful detention designation for him, according to the office of Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.

The term “wrongful detention” means the secretary of state has determined the arrest or detention to lack a legitimate legal basis or is being used for political or other non-legal purposes such as gaining concessions from the U.S. government, the State Department said.

The designation enables the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs to work to secure a detainee’s release, the agency said.

The St. Clairs were first notified by the State Department in February that Joe St. Clair had been detained and imprisoned in Venezuela, after losing contact with him for three months, the family said.

The St. Clairs said they were never notified of any formal charges against their son.

“Joe had been in law school studying hard and hitting the gym just as hard. But he often could barely get out of bed because of his depressive thoughts,” said J. Scotty St. Clair, his older brother.

After graduation from law school, he sought alternative treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder in Costa Rica and then traveled to Colombia, his family said. He began working at a language school there, his father said.

“We sent a healthy kid into the military, and we got a broken one out,” said Scott St. Clair, a 59-year-old former sergeant who served in the Army from 1990 to 1996 with deployments to Kuwait and Somalia.

Some veterans with PTSD have sought alternative treatments involving the use of hallucinogenic drugs outside the U.S. to ease symptoms, such as depression, mood swings and other mental health problems.

“Joe was just taking some time for himself and traveling in Colombia when he was arrested near the Venezuelan border,” Patti St. Clair said to a small gathering of families, their supporters and the media that crowded into the brick alley between two retail buildings along the block of 3100 M Street in Georgetown.

Guillaume said he and Joe St. Clair shared information about their backgrounds while in prison together. They shared a two-man cell.

Joe told him about how he and a friend from Colombia were stopped near the border by Venezuelan authorities and arrested. Their heads were covered, they were put in vehicles, and they were driven across the border to Rodeo One prison in Venezuela, Guillaume said.

St. Clair seemed to be singled out right away for harsh treatment because the authorities knew he was a U.S. military veteran after searching his phone and seeing documents that he carried in his wallet, Guillaume said.

“He felt like his life was in danger when he was captured and brought over the border,” Guillaume said.

The guards pepper-sprayed the prisoners and beat them with batons.

“But Joe’s a very strong-willed man, and he sticks to his word,” Guillaume said. “They would beat us and do psychological things just to rattle us.”

The guards summoned individual prisoners for mock exit interviews, giving them the false impression they were about to be released, Guillaume said.

“It was a mind game to trivialize us and our situation,” he said.

The American prisoners were called from their cells at the end of January with yet another promise of pending release, Guillaume said.

But St. Clair and others hesitated and stayed back, Guillaume said. They mistakenly thought it was another ploy to raise their hopes and disappoint them.

“Joe said, ‘I can’t do this, if this is going to be another game. I am not going to go.’ We did not know anything,” Guillaume recalled.

But this time things were different.

Events happened quickly, after Guillaume and five other American prisoners assembled.

“They had us sign papers attesting that we were not physically or psychologically harmed,” he said.

They were given a set of clean prison clothes and hustled onto a U.S. military plane.

“It is important the public understands these are Americans who are innocent, have been deliberately targeted, are being treated harshly because they are American, or are facing torture and abuse, and they need the support of the American people to be freed,” said Richards of the Foley Foundation.

The St. Clairs met this week on Capitol Hill with Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats from their home state of Washington. They shared their son’s story and efforts to secure his release.

Cantwell promised to send a letter to Trump condemning Maduro for his actions and demanding the release of the American detainees, Scott St. Clair said.

“We also are working with the State Department and have connected with other families in similar situations,” he said.

The State Department assigns families a team that assists them with resources, after an individual is determined to be wrongfully detained. But Scott St. Clair said officials disclose little about the efforts to gain his son’s release.

“We understand that negotiations may be classified. We get that. But there is a void of silence,” he said.

“For privacy, security and other reasons, we have no further comment at this time,” the State Department said.

The Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act of 2020 provides the framework for determining a wrongful detention and authorizing assistance to families. The law is named after former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who was abducted in Iran in 2007 and declared dead in 2020.

A formal request is pending for Gilman, the ex-Marine, to be designated as wrongfully detained under the Levinson Act, according to the office of Sen. Markey, which is endorsing the petition.

Gilman was the third military member pictured on the mural of the 11 Americans held in foreign countries. The mural was first created in July 2022 and updated this week with a new gallery of American detainees replacing the photos of ones released. But Gilman’s picture remained.

Gilman, a former infantry rifleman, pleaded guilty in Russian court in 2024 and was sentenced to seven years and one month for assaulting police officials, according to a Reuters report. In April, another year was added to his sentence.

“It is important that we never forget those currently held hostage or wrongfully detained across the globe — including my constituent Robert Gilman,” Markey said in a social media post that showed Gilman’s portrait at the mural unveiling in Georgetown. “It is time for the administration to formally designate Robert as wrongfully detained and do everything in its power to obtain his release from Russian custody.”

Scott St. Clair said he believes the State Department views the detention of Americans by the Venezuelan government as an emergency situation.

“With the six prisoners released on Jan. 31, U.S. officials learned from them — through their words — about our son and other Americans who are still being held,” he said. “We, his parents, found out that Joe is healthy and alive.”

“We want to continue to be respectful but also persistent as we ask the government to take action as quickly as possible, not only to free Joe but every wrongfully detained person there,” Scott St. Clair said.

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