Family of retired U.S. Marine accused of terrorism in Venezuela awaits word on his fate
More than nine months after his arrest and jailing in Venezuela, retired U.S. Marine Matthew Heath is expected to go before a judge there on Thursday.
The Tennessee man was arrested by Venezuela last Sept. 10 and accused of domestic terrorism, an accusation his family strongly denies.
His arrest came four months after a botched coup in May that later showed signs of betrayal from within. It resulted in the death of six Venezuelan would-be liberators and the arrest of two ex-Green Berets, now sentenced to 20 years in prison there.
‘We have faith in Matthew’s innocence and understand that he is being used as a pawn by the Venezuelan government to get some type of concession from the US government,” Trudy Rutherford, Heath’s aunt, said in a statement to the Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and the McClatchy Washington Bureau.
While Heath’s family has been told of court proceedings scheduled for Thursday, they are unsure what to expect and appealed for mercy.
“We appeal to Presidents Biden and [Nicolás] Maduro to do all they can to bring this innocent man back to his 12-year-old son, his mother Connie, and his father Bobby,’” the statement from Heath’s Knoxville-area family said.
Held in near isolation, Heath was able to meet with his Venezuelan lawyer on Tuesday, although it is unclear what was discussed or what condition he is now in after the long detention.
Heath had an earlier hearing in late February, where he spoke about conditions of his captivity. Speaking to his local TV station WABE, Heath’s mother Connie Haynes said they learned of that hearing after the fact, and that Heath testified he’d been mistreated.
“He’s been tortured, they put plastic bags over his head, electrical shock, he’s been beaten numerous times… this went on for eight days,” she told the TV station. The family continues raising funds for his defense.
Venezuelan judicial sources, speaking on condition of anonymity for their safety, declined to comment on the highly sensitive case other than to say that Heath was being processed by the Maduro regime as a terrorism case.
These sources nervously warned that even asking around about the case status could land a prosecutor in an interrogation session with intelligence officers.
The Heath arrest was framed as a terrorism case from the start, with the regime claiming it had disrupted a covert operation to sabotage power plants and oil facilities in an attempt to destabilize the government.
“There’s no evidence to back that up,” Heath’s mother told the local TV station in February.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab described Heath as a mercenary and alleged that a number of items he held connected him to the Central Intelligence Agency.
“A U.S. citizen and presumed military soldier was found carrying out espionage activities to destabilize Venezuelan territory,” Saab said when announcing Heath’s arrest.
The Biden administration declined comment on the details of his case, but said it is closely watching events.
“The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State,” a senior administration official said. “We are aware of reports of the arrest and subsequent incarceration of a U.S. citizen in Venezuela. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”
Among the challenges facing diplomats and family is the fact that the Trump administration recognized lawmaker Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s true leader. That makes it difficult to negotiate with the now unrecognized Maduro regime, which still maintains its firm grip on power.
Heath, who turns 40 in July, is being held at the DGCIM Boleita headquarters, a five-story building located between a bank and an industrial building on a lightly trafficked avenue in Caracas.
The holding cells are in one of two basements, adapted initially to serve as a holding area during investigations.
In later years, Boleita became a long-term holding facility for high-value political and military prisoners, said Venezuelan Air Force Lt. Nelson Rincón. He worked in the building as an intelligence officer and later was held inside for a few days after breaking with the regime.
“It is now used as a retention center and there are some who have been held there for more than five years,” said Rincón, who is exiled in Florida. “Usually these cells don’t have a place for prisoners to sleep in, and they are only allowed to step out of the basement during one hour a day to receive some sun.”
Rincón heard of torture during the four years he worked there and said that he himself was beaten there when he was arrested in 2012 for disobeying an order. Soon after he deserted and fled to the United States.
The torture allegations were later reported by a fact-finding mission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations in Venezuela in 2016.
In its report, the mission said it found “reasonable grounds to believe” that security forces in Venezuela planned and carried out serious human rights violations” there, including the torture of political dissidents.
Heath appears to be one of just six “political” detainees remaining there, with the other five being former Venezuelan military officers.
Several people with knowledge of the facility report it has been largely emptied, in part because of human rights complaints. Ringed fencing has also gone up recently around the high-security center.
Heath is one of at least nine people held by the Maduro regime who are American citizens or green-card holders. Private hostage negotiator Bill Richardson, a former UN ambassador, is trying to win their release.
Few expect anything but a prison sentence for Heath from the government of Maduro.
Heath’s scheduled court appearance will come a day after a Swiss summit between President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Russia’s support for Maduro has been a top bristle point for relations now at a low point.
Heath, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has effectively become a bargaining chip in larger horse trading between the Biden administration and Venezuela.
Along with Heath and the two captured Green Berets — Airan Berry and Luke Denman — Venezuela also holds the Citgo Six. Those men worked for the Houston-based refinery of Citgo, which until recently had been majority owned by the Venezuelan government.
The six Citgo employees were given sentences ranging from eight to 13 years for allegedly plotting to defraud the company in a planned $4 billion refinancing of Citgo bonds. They were arrested after arriving in 2017 for what they were told was an urgent company meeting in Venezuela.
Initially, the Maduro government hoped the captured Americans could be traded for advantages such as easing sanctions on regime members or lifting a U.S. ban on third countries providing diesel fuel to Venezuela.
But recently, Venezuela signaled what it really hopes to trade for the Americans — an end to the attempted extradition to the United States of financier Alex Saab.
Colombian-born, Saab has held a number of quasi-diplomatic posts for the Maduro regime and is wanted in the United States for money laundering. The Justice Department has also brought drug-trafficking charges against Maduro and his inner circle.
Saab, who is not related to the Venezuelan attorney general with the same surname, is fighting extradition from the West African nation of Cape Verde. The country’s Supreme Court OKd his extradition in March but the ruling was appealed to a constitutional court.
This story was originally published June 16, 2021 at 2:30 PM.
