On Monday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens argued that “the data does not back up that some of the deals that we’ve had to make to bring Americans home [are] actually increasing the amount of people that nation-states are taking hostage. Maduro might be a notable exception.” And also stated that “We’ve always been very quick to use diplomacy in terms of our national elements of power, but there are other tools out there that we need to create, and, I would say, strengthen, and that could be across the information space, economic, financial, legal.”
Co-host Amna Nawaz asked, “You’ve seen, as well as I have, this recent reporting from The Wall Street Journal about how the Venezuelan regime, Nicolas Maduro, has actually been ramping up his detention of a number of foreign nationals, including American citizens, some 50 foreigners since July. It seems like leaders are taking away the opposite lesson, that they’re incentivized to hold hostage American nationals. How do you impose a cost to deter that from happening?”
Carstens answered, “First off, let me gently push back on your assertion. I’d say the data does not back up that some of the deals that we’ve had to make to bring Americans home [are] actually increasing the amount of people that nation-states are taking hostage. Maduro might be a notable exception. But for the most part, our numbers have been as high as 74. They’ve gone down to a very small number at this point. But, in terms of raising the costs, if you can, I would say, number one, build a multilateral coalition that can work together to impose costs, to share information, to, I would say, enact preventative measures, then that’s a good step.”
He continued, “Secondly, we want to, I guess, expand the U.S. toolkit. We’ve always been very quick to use diplomacy in terms of our national elements of power, but there are other tools out there that we need to create, and, I would say, strengthen, and that could be across the information space, economic, financial, legal. There are other tools out there that we’re going to be growing to build just kind of — I guess, put the lid on this horrific — this action. But we’re also working with our multilateral partners to do that as well. And, additionally, we’re trying to create partnerships that will allow us to warn people from doing this. And that’s with the private sector and with nongovernmental sources as well. And, lastly, we’re working on strengthening legal norms so that eventually we have like an ecosystem of organizations, government and nongovernment, that can create the mechanisms that will one day put this to rest.”
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