U.S. journalist freed from custody after being detained by Venezuelan forces

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s government expelled the German ambassador and detained a U.S. freelance journalist in Caracas for hours on Wednesday as President Nicolas Maduro sought to maintain control amid a Western-backed opposition campaign to unseat him.

Cody Weddle, a correspondent for ABC affiliate Local 10 News in Miami, was awaiting a flight to the United States on Wednesday night from an airport outside Caracas.

Senior Venezuelan officials would not comment on the case.

The ambassador, Daniel Kriener, had been among a group of U.S., Latin American and European diplomats who greeted opposition leader Juan Guaido at Caracas’ airport on Monday as he returned to the country after a 10-day trip abroad, defying warnings that he might be arrested.

"Venezuela considers it unacceptable that a foreign diplomat carries out in its territory a public role closer to that of a political leader aligned with the conspiratorial agenda of extremist sectors of the Venezuelan opposition," Maduro's government said in a statement.

Germany, the United States, and more than 50 other countries have recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim leader in the wake of an election last year riddled with irregularities in which Maduro claimed a second term.

Earlier Wednesday, military counterintelligence forces raided Weddle’s Caracas home and took the Virginia native into custody. They also seized Weddle’s assistant, Venezuelan journalist Carlos Camacho.

U.S. diplomats demanded Weddle’s release and sharply criticized the detention. The Venezuelan government did not say why he was being held and did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The State Department “is aware of and deeply concerned with reports that another U.S. journalist has been detained in #Venezuela by #Maduro, who prefers to stifle the truth rather than face it,” Kimberly Breier, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, said in a tweet. “Being a journalist is not a crime.”

Phil Gunson, a political consultant at the International Crisis Group, suggested on Twitter that the incident could strain already tense relations between the United States and Venezuela.

“Having military intelligence arrest a US citizen, freelance reporter @coweddle, seems like unnecessary provocation,” he tweeted.

The two countries came to the brink of suspending relations in January, but they have maintained a limited diplomatic presence in each other's capitals.

Weddle, 29, has been a freelance journalist in Caracas for four years, producing TV and print content for, among others, ABC News, Canadian Broadcast Corp., and the Miami Herald.

As Maduro faces arguably the strongest challenge to his grip on power since becoming president in 2013, he is increasingly limiting media coverage by blocking websites, closing radio stations, and intimidating reporters through paramilitary groups.

Weddle’s detention came one week after Univision journalist Jorge Ramos was held in the presidential palace for hours; his cellphone, cameras, and SIM cards were taken when he asked interview questions Maduro did not like. Ramos and his team were then deported.

On Wednesday, about 7 a.m. local time, a group of armed men, most of them dressed in black, approached Weddle’s Caracas apartment building, said Florangel Manzo, 49, the president of the condominium board. She said that one of the men showed her an order to raid Weddle’s apartment, that the order came from a military tribunal, and that the journalist was being accused of “betraying the homeland.”

A security guard at the building, Juan Jose Araque, said he saw five men dressed in black carrying pistols at Weddle's apartment on Wednesday morning. The guard said the security forces wore jackets indicating that they were from the military intelligence service.

He said Weddle remained calm as the men packed some of his belongings into a suitcase and camera bag. "He didn't look nervous. He had a sandwich before he left," he said. About two hours after arriving, he said, the men escorted the journalist to a black Jeep and drove away.

According to the National Union of Journalism Workers, detentions have surged this year, with Camacho and Weddle joining 34 local and international reporters, photographers, and producers taken into custody in the past two months. Most have subsequently been freed; some have been deported.

The Washington Post’s Carol Morello contributed to this article, which also contains information from the Associated Press.