Venezuelan security forces have arrested at least five Americans in the past few months, according to a US official who spoke to CNN. The official said that each case is different, and some of the Americans may have been involved in drug smuggling. US authorities are still gathering information to determine why the Americans were in Venezuela and what they were doing at the time of their arrest.
Trump administration officials believe the Venezuelan government is holding the Americans to gain leverage over the US as the pressure on Maduro intensifies, with recent US actions including the strikes on drug boats, a CIA attack on a Venezuelan port, and a recent oil blockade.
These actions, together with a significant deployment of US military hardware to the region, has ramped up the pressure on Venezuela's leader, Nicolás Maduro, and even raised suspicions that Washington is attempting to topple the regime in Caracas.
Click through for a brief history of the often fraught relationship between the United States and Venezuela.