The socialist regime governing Venezuela freed U.S. Air Force veteran Joe St. Clair on Tuesday after spending six months unjustly detained as a political prisoner under dictator Nicolás Maduro.
St. Clair, 33, was wrongfully detained in October 2024 while traveling as a tourist near the Venezuelan border with a friend. St. Clair’s family denounced that he and his friend were arrested by Venezuelan authorities, who transported them across the border to a Venezuelan prison. The family lost contact with St. Clair for three months until February, when the U.S. State Department notified them that he had been detained and imprisoned in Venezuela. St. Clair has served four tours in Afghanistan.
U.S. Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Richard Grenell announced the release of St. Clair on Tuesday after travelling to a “neutral country” to negotiate with Venezuelan officials, and stressed that “this is only possible because Donald Trump puts Americans first.”
Grenell spoke to Newsmax shortly after returning to the United States with St. Clair and revealed that he traveled to Antigua to meet with the Venezuelan officials and secure the Air Force veteran’s release from captivity. Grenell pointed out that there are still around six Americans unjustly detained by the Maduro regime.
“We have around six Americans who are held against their will. And we got one of them home. And so, we just returned to Washington and are very excited to welcome Joe back home in the land of the free,” Grenell said.
“He’s extremely excited to be back home,” he continued. “He’s a very smart kid. He is passionate about making sure that people understand that to be an American is a really special thing. So, in terms of his story, I’m going to let him tell it, Greta. It’s his story to tell. And I think that there’s been some misinformation out there about it. And I think he will talk in due time.”
Jonathan Franks, a spokesperson for the St. Clair family, also spoke with Newsmax and stated that Joe’s release would have not been possible if not for President Donald Trump.
“This was possible today only because President Trump has made such a priority of bringing home Americans that are unjustly detained abroad,” said Franks, stressing that President Trump is taking a “step further” in returning Americans wrongfully detained during the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden.
“[The Biden administration] certainly came part of the way to where people like me think we need to be in terms of bringing people home relatively quickly after they’re detained,” Franks explained. “President Trump has taken that and turned up the dial all the way to the max and has succeeded in bringing folks home in cases that I thought were hopeless six months ago.”
“The difference is that the Trump administration has looked for reasons to bring people home, as opposed to the Biden administration that often looked for reasons not to,” he continued.
Recently, St. Clair’s name was included in a list that the CASLA institute presented to the Organization of American States (OAS) containing the names of 31 of Maduro’s foreign national political prisoners subjected to conditions of forced disappearance.
Other American nationals detailed in CASLA’s list include U.S. Navy Seal member Wilbert Joseph Castaneda, Lucas Hunter, Jorge Marcelo Vargas, and Jonathan Pagan González. Some of the listed individuals stand accused of being part of a broader “mercenary group” allegedly linked to the CIA and Spain’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) that sought to plot against Maduro, members of his authoritarian regime, and Venezuelan state institutions. Neither Maduro nor any Venezuelan state official has publicly presented any evidence to substantiate these accusations at press time.
The St. Clair family explained to the American military newspaper Stars and Stripes that they were never informed of any charges against their son and explained that he had traveled outside of the United States seeking alternative treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
“The main message is, and I believe this — President Trump is committed to bringing all American hostages home no matter what,” Scott St. Clair, Joe’s father, reportedly told radio station KTTH in greater Seattle.
In January, Grenell travelled to Caracas to meet with Maduro, leading to the successful release of a group of six unjustly detained Americans accused of being involved in supposed “plots” against the Venezuelan socialist regime.
David Guillaume, one of the six Americans released in January, told Stars and Stripes that he shared a prison cell with St. Clair, and explained that he told the U.S. State Department about St. Clair and eight other American nationals still unjustly detained in Venezuela.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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