Univision anchor Jorge Ramos was briefly detained in Venezuela after an interview Monday, according to the network.Ramos and his crew were interviewing President Nicolas Maduro at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, when they were detained because Maduro didn't like the questions, the network said.Daniel Coronell, who serves as president of the news for Univision in the United States, said on Twitter that his employees were being held against their will and had their technical equipment confiscated.Ramos and the crew members were eventually released. </s> New York (CNN Business) The Univision network said six of its staffers, including veteran anchorman Jorge Ramos, were briefly detained at the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday.

Ramos and the crew members were released a little less than three hours after the episode began.

Daniel Coronell, Univision's president of news, tweeted that "Jorge Ramos and his team have been released and are on route to their hotel."

In Caracas, the Venezuelan National Union of the Press Workers also confirmed that "the Univision team has been freed."

The network said Ramos was in Caracas to interview embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Univision spokesman Jose Zamora said Maduro objected to Ramos' questions.

Read More </s> • A team of six Univision journalists, including veteran newsman Jorge Ramos, have reportedly been released from the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, after being detained, Univision News reported via Twitter.
• The news organization’s initial tweet alleged that the team was interviewing embattled leader Nicolás Maduro, but “he did not like the questions,” Univision said.
• They were released “unharmed,” Univision said in a report.

A team of six Univision journalists, including veteran newsman Jorge Ramos, have reportedly been released from the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, after being detained, Univision News reported via Twitter.

The news organization’s initial tweet alleged that the team was interviewing embattled leader Nicolás Maduro, but “he did not like the questions,” Univsion said. They were briefly detained and had their video equipment and phones taken away.

They were released “unharmed,” Univision said in a report.

“UPDATE from president of Univision News says anchor @jorgeramosnews and team have been released from the presidential palace in Caracas, after reportedly being detained by Maduro’s government over interview,” CBS News Manuel Bojorquez reported on Twitter.

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Kimberly Breier tweeted that the the US State Department was aware of the detainment.

A spokeswoman from Univision pointed INSIDER to their Twitter feed, and a spokeswoman from the State Department declined to comment on the record but noted that Breier tweeted about the incident.

Univision tweeted a photo of Ramos with the caption, “Happy to report @jorgeramosnews and the @univison team have been released. Here he is on his phone in his hotel after he was released this evening.”

Venezuela is currently undergoing political upheaval. Maduro is the authoritarian leader clinging to power in the country, while many countries including the United States, recognize Juan Guaidó as the interim president.

Over the weekend the fight between the two leaders intersected with the severe humanitarian crisis in the country, with militias supporting Maduro sending food and humanitarian aid to address food and medical supply shortages on fire. </s> Univision said on Monday that a news team led by its anchor Jorge Ramos was detained at the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, while interviewing President Nicolas Maduro.

'They were interviewing @NicolasMaduro but he didn't like the questions. Their technical equipment was also confiscated,' the Spanish-language US television network tweeted.

Univision and the US Department of State had called on Maduro to release the journalists.

According to CNN, executives at Univision were able to find out what happened because 'Jorge managed to call us'.

But in the middle of their conversation, 'they took his phone away'.

'We insist on their immediate release; the world is watching,' tweeted Kimberly Breier, assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs.

In response to Univision's claims, Venezuela's information minister Jorge Rodriguez tweeted that the government had in the past welcomed hundreds of journalists to the Miraflores presidential palace, but it did not support 'cheap shows'.

Univision later said their team had been released, but the Venezuelan government kept their camera equipment. The crew also lost the recording from the interview.

'Jorge Ramos and his team have been released and are on route to their hotel,' a tweet from Daniel Coronell, Univision's president of news, read.

Univision also shared a photo of Ramos on the phone in his hotel room.

Ramos' daughter, Paola, tweeted shortly after the incident that she had spoken to her father.

'He is safe. He told me that 15 mins into his interview, Maduro stopped him & then forced him & his team into a dark room for 2.5 hours,' her tweet read.

The incident unfolded on the same day that US Vice President Mike Pence met with Juan Guaido in Bogota, Colombia.

Pence arrived in the Colombian capital for an emergency summit of regional leaders to discuss the deepening crisis and immediately met with Guaido, who the US and 50 other nations recognize as Venezuela's rightful leader.

The Trump administration on Monday announced new sanctions on allies of Maduro's as it struggles to find new ways to boost his opponent Guaido after an effort to deliver humanitarian aid to the economically devastated nation faltered amid strong resistance from security forces who remain loyal to the socialist leader.

In a speech to the group, Pence urged regional partners to freeze oil assets controlled by Maduro, transfer the proceeds to Guaido and restrict visas for Maduro's inner circle.

He said the US was imposing more sanctions on four pro-government governors, including a close Maduro ally who negotiated the release of an American in jail more than two years.

'It's time to do more,' said Pence. 'The day is coming soon when Venezuela's long nightmare will end, when Venezuela will once more be free, when her people will see a new birth of freedom, in a nation reborn to liberated.'

Pence's appearance before the Lima Group comes at an important crossroads for the coalition of 14 mostly conservative Latin American nations and Canada that has joined forces to pressure Maduro.

A month after Guaido declared himself interim president at an outdoor rally, hopes that support for Maduro inside the military would quickly crumble have faded.

Venezuela was marred by clashes this weekend after the National Guard and police forces loyal to Maduro blocked trucks from crossing near the Brazilian and Colombian borders.

Security forces on the borders with Colombia and Brazil fired tear gas and buckshot on activists waving Venezuelan flags while escorting trucks with emergency medical and food kits.

Four people have been reported killed and at least 300 wounded, although only a few were hospitalized.

While Colombian authorities said more than 160 soldiers deserted their posts and sought refuge across the border over the weekend, the highest-ranking among them was a National Guard major.

No battalion or division commanders have come forward to challenge Maduro despite almost-daily calls by Guaido and the US to do so.

That's left many asking what Guaido and the US can do to break the stalemate.

For now, the US is showing no signs it is considering a military intervention to remove Maduro. </s> A Russian security official said on Tuesday he believed Washington was planning to intervene militarily in Venezuela.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, said Moscow had agreed to a US proposal to hold talks in Venezuela — a Russian ally — however the US had postponed them on "false pretenses."

"...The United States is preparing a military invasion of an independent state," Patrushev said in an interview with Russian weekly newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.

"The transfer of American special operations forces to Puerto Rico, the landing of US forces in Colombia and other facts indicate the Pentagon is reinforcing its troops in the region in order to use them in an operation to remove ... Maduro from power."

Read more: Venezuela crisis: US military intervention becoming more likely

Patrushev's comments come on the heels of accusations that the Venezuelan government held a reporting team from a Spanish-language US television network against their will for more than two hours.

Univision anchor Jorge Ramos was interviewing President Nicolas Maduro when an altercation took place that he says led to their brief detention.

Ramos claims that he and his team were locked up in a security room where the lights were turned off and that their cellphones were confiscated.

"He did not like the things we were asking him, about the lack of democracy in Venezuela, about torture, political prisoners, about the humanitarian crisis that is going on," Ramos recounted, saying that he showed Maduro a photo of young men eating out of the garbage.

According to Ramos, the photo prompted Venezuela's acting president to abruptly leave the interview and shortly after, the team was stripped of their equipment and personal items.

The anchor spoke by phone with Univision news and the network aired the footage that allegedly drew Maduro's ire.

US State Department official, Kimberly Breier, announced the team's detention on Twitter. "The State Department has received word the journalist Jorge Ramos and his team are being held against their will at Miraflores Palace by Nicolas Maduro. We insist on their immediate release; the world is watching," Breier said.

Venezuela's Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez denounced Univision on Twitter, arguing that the government has welcomed hundreds of journalists at the Miraflores presidential palace. But Rodrgiuez said Caracas did not support "cheap shows," orchestrated with the help of the US Department of State.

Read more: Reporting in Venezuela: 'The fear has become real'

Venezuela's Press Workers Union said on Twitter that members of Venezuela's security services had surrounded the hotel where the journalists were staying and had notified the team that they would be taken to the airport in the morning, as part of deportation procedures

Univision is one of the largest Spanish-language broadcasters in the US. Ramos, of Mexican origin, is one of the network's most prominent anchors and is known for his tough and confrontational style during his interviews.

In 2015, he was ejected from a press conference of then-candidate Donald Trump, after he refused to sit down and continued to press Trump over his pledge to deport undocumented immigrants from the US.

The United Nations Security Council was expected to discuss Venezuela later on Monday at Washington's request.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. - Human rights activists in Venezuela are demanding the release of independent journalist Luis Carlos Diaz.

Naky Soto, his wife, said Venezuelan intelligence agents brought her handcuffed husband home after detaining him while he was riding his bicycle on Monday, raided their home on Tuesday and took him away again.

"Big and scary escalation of Maduro's war on the press, as he looks for blackout scapegoats," New York Times reporter Anatoly Kumanaev wrote on Twitter. "Luis Carlos is one of the sharpest media observers in the country. Detained by secret police for his coverage of the blackout. No officials, of course, fired or even rebuked for the crisis."

Venezuela's National Union of Press Workers reported the agents with the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, or SEBIN, working with military counterintelligence agents, or DGCIM, took him about 5:30 p.m., Monday, and when they returned with him to his home they confiscated computers, a pen drive, cell phones and cash.

Soto said Diaz reported he was hurt during his detention. During the 2:30 a.m. raid, the union reported agents also held several people at gunpoint and identified them as Marco Ruiz, a spokesman for the union, journalists Lila Vanorio and Luz Mely Reyes and Federico Black, a communications consultant.

"Venezuelan authorities should immediately release Luis Carlos Díaz, return his confiscated equipment, and stop this absurd campaign blaming their own failures on critical journalists," said CPJ Central and South America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick. "Without electricity, much of the Venezuelan public is already deprived of access to information from TV, radio, and the internet in the midst of an emergency. Harassing and jailing journalists will only exacerbate the crisis."

Spain's Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press it is trying to find out from Venezuelan authorities why Diaz, a journalist with dual Spanish and Venezuelan nationality has been detained.

Soto and other supporters of freedom of speech in Venezuela organized an 11 a.m. meeting outside of the prosecutor's office in Caracas to demand his release. She asked the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights to intervene.

According to the Instituto Presan y Sociedad, or IPYS, a nongovernmental organization monitoring freedom of expression in Venezuela, 40 journalist have been the victims of arbitrary detentions in Venezuela this year alone.

With journalists from around the world, including Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, the hashtag Liberen A Luis Carlos, or Free Luis Carlos, was trending on social media Tuesday morning. The independent journalist broadcasts live on Union Radio Noticias and, according to El Pais, he is a dual citizen of Spain and Venezuela. </s> A six-person team of journalists will be deported from Venezuela after upsetting President Nicolas Maduro during an interview at the presidential palace in Caracas, Reuters reports.

The journalists, who work for American Spanish-language television network Univision, were briefly detained at the presidential palace on Monday after Maduro said he did not like their questions, anchor Jorge Ramos said.

Maduro reportedly stopped the team’s interview after Ramos showed footage of Venezuelan youths eating from a garbage truck and questioned the president about the country’s spiraling humanitarian crisis.

The journalists They were later told that they needed to be at the airport early Tuesday morning for a flight to Miami.

In response to the incident, Venezuela’s Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez Tweeted that Venezuela had previously welcomed hundreds of journalists to the palace, but did not support “cheap shows.”

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Kimberly Breier said, “News of their detention & confiscation of their equipment by Maduro’s henchmen are the latest reminder that press freedom in #Venezuela applies only to those who are willing to spread the regime’s lies.”

It is not the first time that foreign journalists have faced trouble in Venezuela. At least seven journalists in the country to cover the presidential contest were detained in January, according to Reuters.

Venezuela has been in locked in a political standoff since Juan Guaido, head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself the interim president of Venezuela in late January. Although several countries, including the U.S., have recognized Guaido as the country’s interim president, Maduro refuses to step down.

Venezuela’s government has accused Washington of attempting to orchestrate a coup. </s> The Latest: US journalist reported freed in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The latest on the detention of a U.S. journalist by Venezuela security forces (all times local):

Executives at a Miami TV station say their correspondent based in Venezuela has been freed from custody hours after security forces seized him at his apartment.

ABC affiliate Local 10 News reported Wednesday that freelance journalist Cody Weddle was at the airport outside Caracas waiting for a flight to the United States.

Weddle's detention came the same day that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the expulsion of Germany's ambassador after the envoy expressed support for Guaido.

Virginia-born Weddle has worked as a journalist in Venezuela for more than four years. It's unclear why officials detained him.

Senior Venezuelan officials would not comment on the case.

Lawyers and press freedom groups say Venezuelan security forces have seized a U.S. journalist at his apartment amid the country's escalating political turmoil.

Neighbors say a squad of five men dressed in black uniforms and carrying a written order demanded entry into the Caracas apartment building of journalist Cody Weddle on Wednesday morning. They say the officers emerged two hours later with the Virginia-born Weddle carrying a large suitcase and equipment bag.

The U.S. State Department says it is aware of a missing journalist and warns President Nicolas Maduro's government that the world is watching. </s> CARACAS: Venezuelan authorities detained three foreign journalists and a driver working for the Spanish news agency EFE on Wednesday, the company said, in the latest arrests of reporters covering US-backed efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

Colombian photographer Leonardo Muñoz was arrested with his Venezuelan driver Jose Salas while reporting on protests against the government.

Hours later intelligence officers detained Spanish reporter Gonzalo Domínguez Loeda and Colombian TV producer Mauren Barriga Vargas at their hotel, EFE`s bureau chief in Caracas, Nelida Fernandez said.

The entire team had travelled from Bogota earlier in the month. The arrests follow the deportation of two Chilean reporters detained this week. A French diplomatic source said on Wednesday that two French reporters covering the turmoil had been arrested and that the French Embassy was seeking their release.

"Our Embassy has requested consular protection in accordance with the Vienna Convention and in particular the right of access," the source said. The French reporters were working for daily television programme Quotidien, part of the TF1 television network. TF1 declined to comment.

Accused of election fraud, and overseeing a deep economic collapse that has led millions of Venezuelans to migrate, Maduro is facing the biggest challenge to his rule since replacing Hugo Chavez six years ago.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido has won the backing of the most countries in the Western Hemisphere since declaring himself interim president last week and calling for fresh elections.

Maduro says the strategy to topple him is a coup, led by hawks in the Trump administration such as Special Envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams, a veteran diplomat involved in the armed interventions in Central America in the 1980s.

France said on Wednesday that Maduro appeared not to be heeding calls for new presidential elections and that European foreign ministers would discuss next steps at a meeting in Bucharest on Thursday.
Jorge Ramos and five other Univision staff are detained at Miraflores Palace in Caracas shortly after interviewing Nicolás Maduro.