OPINION: In the jungles of South America, state-sponsored transnational crimes are being committed against U.S. citizens in the form of cross-border kidnappings, a problem that is raising the concerns of Colombian and U.S. officials.
By The Washington Times –
May 10, 2023
Last year, an American named Eyvin Alexis Hernandez was kidnapped by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime and taken to a dilapidated military compound. What is most frightening about Mr. Hernandez’s situation, however, is that when he was detained, he was most likely still on Colombian soil.
Mr. Hernandez isn’t the average lawyer. He has spent 15 years with the Los Angeles County Public Defender defending those who cannot afford to defend themselves. In a cruel irony, Mr. Hernandez now finds himself arbitrarily detained in a windowless Venezuelan prison under circumstances that exceed his worst nightmares. It is now our responsibility to get him home.
Last March, Mr. Hernandez took a vacation in Colombia, beach-hopping with friends. When one of his Venezuelan friends needed to go to a town on the Colombia-Venezuela border to have her passport stamped, Mr. Hernandez accompanied her to the small town of Cucuta. The town has increasingly become the center of turf wars fought by armed paramilitary groups, making it one of the most dangerous locations in the region.
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Read More: The Washington Times – Venezuela’s Maduro regime abducting Americans at Colombian border
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