Fortunately they let him go quickly, I don’t think they wanted to test our resolve.
Via Fox News:
The American journalist who was detained in Venezuela Wednesday spoke exclusively to Fox News about his detention and release.
Cody Weddle, 29, told David Asman on “Cavuto Live” Saturday about the chain of events that included his arrest and aftermath. He recalled being detained on early Wednesday before being freed several hours later then deported. He heard the doorbell to his apartment ring but thought it was somebody delivering water to his residence.
“And when I opened that door I saw three armed men. They had rifles, they had handguns and then there was also a woman there as well and they gave me an order that said I was under investigation for espionage for extracting military equipment and also for treason to Venezuela and they ended up raiding my apartment,” Weddle told Fox News.
When asked what he thought triggered the arrest, Weddle said he was asked about some reporting he did regarding the “current state of Venezuela security forces.”
“I did reporting that showed the rank-and-file members of Venezuela security forces are suffering from the effects of this economic crisis of the humanitarian crisis,” Weddle said. “They are paid measly salaries and I spoke to a few members of the security forces, anonymously and they all said that the rank and file are ready to see change in the country but that they can’t rise up in any way because the top generals remain with [President Nicolas Maduro] and there is intense surveillance by people like these counterintelligence services so they started asking the context I had in the military, contacts I had with all types of security forces so I think, although they never said explicitly, I think that was perhaps the reason this all happened.”