WASHINGTON, July 19 (R) – Little is known about the names of Americans jailed abroad despite their years of plight to regain their freedom, but now, thanks to a work of art unveiled in the US capital on Wednesday, the faces of more than a dozen US citizens held by foreign governments will be visible to tens of thousands.
A mural depicting the faces of 18 Americans jailed abroad, including US basketball star Brittney Griner, who has been held in Russia on drug charges since February, has been placed on the side of a building in a narrow alleyway in Georgetown, just a few miles west of the White House.
The mural’s opening is the latest act of public advocacy from the families of the detainees, who in recent months have significantly stepped up calls for US President Joe Biden to personally intervene to bring loved ones home.
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The poster was pasted on the side of the building on Tuesday along with the families of the detainees. This collaborative art form captures the plight of families trying to spread the word with their modest means, said Iowan designer Isaac Campbell, who attended the event.
“I’m like many American citizens who don’t know the magnitude of this (hostage) crisis, the stories behind the families,” he said.
The United States doesn’t provide official figures on how many US citizens are being detained abroad, but the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, named for an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed in Syria, says more than 60 US citizens are unfairly detained 18 countries are imprisoned.
Some are held by leading US adversaries such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela.
People visit a mural of Brittney Griner and other hostages around the world created by the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, a campaign led by family members of Americans wrongfully arrested or held hostage abroad, in Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, U.S. July 20, 2022 R/Sarah Silbiger
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Pressure on Biden has mounted as the families of those imprisoned shifted gears after years of quiet diplomacy that they say has yielded no results. The February arrest of two-time Olympic gold medalist Griner in Russia has also heightened the importance of the issue.
“She brought this conversation into the mainstream,” said Alexandra Forseth, whose uncle and father are among jailed former executives at US oil refinery Citgo in Venezuela.
The key question many families asked at the event was whether any of the detainees would be able to reunite with their families once the mural begins to fade – which could be a matter of weeks or months.
“Our message is pretty simple,” said Everett Rutherford, the uncle of Matthew Heath, a US Marine veteran who has been imprisoned in Venezuela for nearly two years. “We want the Biden administration to use the tools available on a country-by-country, case-by-case basis as effectively as they are available to him in his office to bring people home,” he said.
Former US Marine Trevor Reed was released in April as part of a prisoner swap with Russia, despite relations between Moscow and Washington at their worst in decades after Biden intervened and commuted the US prison sentence of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.
Weeks before his release, Reed’s parents had met Biden at the White House. Since then, families have increased their requests to meet with him in person.
“We need him to communicate directly to his government that getting these people home is a higher priority than tangential political goals,” Forseth said.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration issued an executive order to punish and deter foreign hostage-taking. Continue reading
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Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Diane Craft
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