Friends of lawyer detained in Venezuela rally at Capitol for his release, beg Biden to intercede

Like every tourist in a foreign country finds themselves at some point, Eyvin Hernandez was a little lost. The public defender from Los Angeles was traveling in the border town of Cucuta, Colombia, with a friend when they realized they needed directions. They were pointed to a dirt road that led to an unmarked bridge.

That’s where a man demanded Hernandez pay a bribe to enter Venezuela. According to his family, Hernandez refused, saying he wasn’t trying to cross the border. Moments later, armed men grabbed Hernandez, accused him of being an American spy, blindfolded him and took him away. That happened in March 2022. More than a year later, Hernandez remains in a Caracas prison, facing trumped-up charges as a geopolitical pawn in negotiations between the U.S. and Venezuela’s autocratic regime under Nicolás Maduro.

On Tuesday, a coalition of Hernandez’s supporters rallied at the U.S. Capitol for his release, hosted by Reps. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., Young Kim, R-Calif., and Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.

“We know that the State Department and we know that the administration have a lot of tools in their toolkit,” Kamlager-Dove said. “We are asking you to use them — use every tool and then use it again.”