Venezuela Holds American Sailor Hostage

Getting detained on dubious grounds in a third-world country with a broad anti-American streak is a genuine nightmare, but one American seaman is making the best of it with the aid of Facebook, a smartphone and a keen sense of gallows humor.

Russell Macomber of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a crewman on the M/V Ocean Atlas, a heavy-lift cargo ship that has sailed under a U.S. flag since 2002. On Aug. 29, Ocean Atlas was detained in the Venezuelan port of Maracaibo. Its crew has been held there ever since, enduring multiple searches by agents from Interpol and the Venezuelan drug enforcement agency and the arrest of the ship’s captain. The grounds for the detention are unclear — crew members were initially told it was suspicion of drug smuggling, then told they were suspected of smuggling firearms — as is the timeline for their release. My colleague Chris Helman has more.

Throughout this period, Macomber has been narrating the ordeal to friends and family on his Facebook page. While the posts have grown progressively more urgent, they’re shot through with the sort of sardonic sangfroid you like to imagine a captive American seaman would display under pressure. When I asked Macomber for permission to quote from them, he readily agreed, saying he hoped calling attention to his crew’s plight might speed their release. He stipulated, however, that I describe him as having six-pack abs and a thick head of hair.

For the record, I’m told Russell Macomber has six-pack abs and a thick head of hair.

His last update before arriving in Maracaibo betrayed no hint of what was to come.