{"id":101884,"date":"2026-01-16T02:39:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101884\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T02:39:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:39:31","slug":"venezuela-releases-staten-island-man-after-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101884\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela releases Staten Island man after detention"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A 28-year-old Staten Island man whose family lost contact with him in early December was among several Americans released Tuesday from Venezuela\u2019s prison system, according to the New York Times<\/a>, which cited relatives and U.S. officials. <\/p>\n

James Luckey-Lange<\/a>, the son of the late musician Diane Luckey, who went by the stage name Q Lazzarus<\/a>, had been traveling through South America following the deaths of his parents, when he crossed into Venezuela and was detained, according to his aunt Abbie Luckey, who confirmed his release to the Times. \u201cIt\u2019s a great release,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Luckey-Lange\u2019s relatives had not heard from him since early December, leaving them uncertain whether he was alive. It remained unclear whether he had a valid visa, which U.S. citizens are required to obtain to enter Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe welcome the release of detained Americans in Venezuela,\u201d the State Department said in a statement Tuesday night. \u201cThis is an important step in the right direction by the interim authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the outlet, the release of Luckey-Lange and other U.S. citizens marked the first known freeing of Americans from Venezuelan prisons since the U.S. military seized President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro earlier this month. <\/p>\n

Venezuela is still believed to be holding 800 to 900 political prisoners, rights groups estimate. <\/p>\n

Under Maduro\u2019s government, political prisoners were often held for extended periods, and foreign nationals were sometimes detained on vague charges such as terrorism or espionage.<\/p>\n

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican representing Staten Island and part of Brooklyn, welcomed the news in a statement to the Advance\/SILive.com. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is great news and we appreciate the support of the community, media and State Department,\u201d Malliotakis said. \u201cWe look forward to his safe return to the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A 28-year-old Staten Island man whose family lost contact with him in early December…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-101884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}