WASHINGTON — Eyvin Hernandez had been detained for six months at a notorious jail in Venezuela when seven other Americans were released earlier this month in a prisoner swap with the United States. The 44-year-old public defender from Los Angeles saw one of his best friends in prison let go as he, and several others, were left behind.
Unlike those freed, Hernandez and the others who remain are still not officially designated by the United States as wrongfully detained abroad, a determination that must be made by the State Department using criteria set by Congress. But the administration is under no legal time constraints. In Hernandez’s case, half a year of imprisonment in Venezuela’s infamous “House of Dreams” has passed without the U.S. government making a determination on his case.
A wrongful detention determination unlocks critical resources for the families of Americans imprisoned overseas, including interagency attention and access to the office of the presidential envoy for hostage affairs, which takes over the case from the Bureau of Consular Affairs.
