Traveling on a US passport means accessing 186 countries without having to apply for a visa, but nationality alone is increasingly putting Americans at risk in some parts of the world as they are often tempting targets for Washington’s opponents. .
The State Department currently believes that at least fifty of its citizens are detained by foreign governments, including China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela, accused of crimes their families deny are true, while a dozen have been kidnapped and held hostage by extremist groups.
Of these, perhaps the best known case today is that of Brittney Griner, a famous professional basketball player who was arrested last February at Sheremetyevo International Airport, near Moscow, a few days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country from which she is defending herself. Vladimir Putin with weapons and military assistance from the United States and its allies.
American basketball player Brittney Griner was sentenced to 9 years in prison in August.
Griner, 31, a Mercury star from Phoenix, Arizona, who plays in the off-season for a Russian team in Yekaterinburg, where he gets paid three times as much as here, was arrested for finding less than an ounce of oil. . Cannabis, a remedy the six-foot-tall athlete uses for muscle aches, has a prescription and is legally obtained in the United States.
The young woman, winner of two Olympic gold medals, was sentenced to nine years in prison.
The Joe Biden administration has offered to release Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer, in exchange for the athlete and another American, Paul Whelan, a former Russian jailed soldier accused of espionage.
Putin, however, does not seem very interested in the exchange and his government has made it clear that the anger in the United States over his arrest is a lack of respect for Russian laws where Griner is treated and considered a drug trafficker.
Americans’ stay abroad can last from days to years, as is the case with Austin Tice, a journalist who worked for The Washington Post and the CBS television network which disappeared in 2012 while covering the Middle East and is believed to be in the hands of the Syrian government, but denies having it.
The situation of these hostages from nations with which Washington does not have diplomatic or friendly relations is rather difficult as the communication takes place through a third country acting as an intermediary. The Department of State does not provide legal assistance of any kind to detainees or their families.
And to discourage extremist regimes or groups from detaining US citizens, ransom payments are prohibited by law. In addition to the fact that the cases and negotiations of which it is believed can be treated as chess pieces up to 65 of its citizens somewhere in the world, are kept secret and without arousing reaction from the public opinion, for fear of angering. more kidnappers.
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