Last month, Venezuela freed 10 Americans and returned to the U.S. for prosecution an indicted Navy contractor known as “Fat Leonard” in exchange for the U.S. releasing an ally of President Nicolas Maduro charged in a money-laundering conspiracy. In September, five Americans jailed for years in Iran walked free in a deal that saw the release of nearly $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets. Months earlier, Rwanda freed Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda,” after a diplomatic intervention on his behalf by the U.S.And in 2022, the U.S. swapped an imprisoned Taliban drug lord for an American contractor in Afghanistan, and a notorious Russian arms trafficker for Griner.As hostage diplomacy has generated front-page news and become a key area of focus — elevated in part by the October capture of scores of hostages in Israel by Hamas — families of detainees have jostled for attention from the U.S. government, including from President Joe Biden himself.The president has met with some families — he had in-person and virtual conversations with families of American hostages held in Gaza — though some, like Li, are still seeking their first encounter.Kai Li, a Chinese immigrant who started his own export business in the U.S., was detained in September 2016 after flying into Shanghai. He was placed under surveillance, interrogated without a lawyer and accused of providing state secrets to the FBI. The U.S. government has designated him as wrongfully detained and a United Nations working group has called his 10-year prison sentence arbitrary.Complicating the matter are diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and China, with Washington and Beijing regarding each other as strategic rivals. Harrison Li regards a November summit between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping as a missed opportunity to more forcefully move his father’s case toward resolution, and wonders what additional steps he can be taking.“You think, OK, what else can you do? What is something that you’re not doing properly or you could do better or you could do more of?” Li said.Maryam Kamalmaz has had no trace of her father, Majd Kamalmaz, since the psychologist from Texas was stopped at a checkpoint in Syria in 2017 after traveling there to visit an elderly family member. He remains one of several Americans missing in Syria, including journalist Austin Tice, despite a 2020 visit by Carstens to try to negotiate their release.“Other families know their loved ones’ condition. They know what’s going on. In my father’s case, there’s been no trial, there’s been no case. There’s nothing against him. He’s just basically disappeared into their system, disappeared completely,” said Kamalmaz.Part of Carstens’ job involves regular communication with families. Sometimes the updates are cheerful, sometimes they’re painful.Just before Griner’s release, a representative from his office visited the sister of Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan detained in Russia since December 2018, to break the news in person that Griner would be coming home but that Russia had refused to free her brother as part of the swap.Carstens said deals like that, in which a detainee from one country is released but another is not, are “no small thing” and weigh heavily on his team.“Unless someone’s coming off a plane, onto a tarmac, in the United States of America and into the arms of their loved ones, we’re not getting a win,” he said.
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