By: Daniel Nardini

It seems that there is a growing number of rogue countries that are using U.S. citizens as hostages, as bargaining chips against the United States. There is Cuba holding Alan Gross. There is North Korea holding Kenneth Bae. Now Venezuela is holding a man named Timothy Tracy on the ever ambiguous charge of “fomenting post-election violence on behalf of the U.S. government. Timothy Tracy, a documentary video photographer, lives in California and was educated at Georgetown University. Among his documentaries were “American Harmony” about competitive barbershop quartet singing, and “Under Siege” about terrorism and smuggling across the U.S.-Canada border. His whole style is based on people telling their stories as part of the big picture.

This is what he was trying to do in Venezuela as well. He wanted people to tell their stories from both sides of the recent presidential election. Tracy had no real interest in siding with the government nor with the opposition. His sole interest was to have people tell their stories and tell their viewpoints to paint a much larger picture of how the Venezuelan presidential election unfolded. His documentary took six months to shoot in Venezuela. At this point, the government under current President Nicolas Maduro claimed that the election was “fair,” while the opposition under presidential candidate Henrique Capriles claimed it was not and wants a complete recount. There has been extreme violence (mostly by the Venezuelan government of course), and it is in this situation that Maduro personally ordered the arrest and trial of Tracy.

All those who know Tracy describe him as politically naive and with something of an eccentric personality. He certainly is a brave person for wanting to go into the heart of an election battle in a country where violence is a normal occurrence of the political process. There is no question that Maduro wanted to take and hold Tracy as hostage in order to use him as a bargaining chip. With a judiciary as warped and controlled as the rest of the socialist government in Venezuela, Timothy Tracy stands no chance at a fair trial, and again is being held hostage to the whims of Maduro. Despite claims by the Venezueland government, Tracy is no more a CIA (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) agent than French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was Chinese.

What is just as damning is that the Venezuelan government will not grant U.S. consular officials access to Timothy Tracy which is required under international law and diplomatic protocol. Tracy has been accused of a capital crime, and hence he needs all the help he can get. But that seems to be the intention of the Venezuelan government—not to let him have any legal help and not to give him a chance to defend himself. This is worse than just hostage taking, it is virtual war! The U.S. government is now conducting this on a private level. Given the circumstances, it should be done on a government-to-government level given the urgency to save Tracy. At this moment, the Venezuelan government could be torturing him or mistreating him in so many ways. Perhaps one of the things that the U.S. government should be doing is cutting off all oil and natural gas imports from Venezuela and stopping trade in every way, shape and form with Venezuela until Tracy is freed. Perhaps all financial transactions should be stopped immediately and all Venezuelan government assets (whatever they are) should be seized. The Venezuelan government accuses Tracy of fomenting unrest, but it is the Venezuelan government itself that is responsible for the current instability.