This American went to Colombia to kite surf. He’s been detained in Venezuela for months.

Lucas Hunter loves to kitesurf, so along with his sister Sophie he planned a trip to Colombia to take advantage of the “good waves” in the north of the country in late December last year.

Lucas Hunter loves to kitesurf, so along with his sister Sophie he planned a trip to Colombia to take advantage of the “good waves” in the north of the country in late December last year. After an illness left Sophie unable to go on the trip, Lucas traveled alone for what was supposed to be two-and-a-half-week long vacation. Sophie hasn’t seen or heard from him for more than two months, after he was detained close to the border with Venezuela. Sophie said her brother, an American citizen who lives in London, had gone to that part of Colombia “because that’s where they are kitesurfing competitions.” “It’s quite remote, so you have to basically get a motorbike to go to the different spots,” she told CNN, noting that she was “in constant communication with him.” On January 7, 2025, in a remote area close to the border, Lucas saw a checkpoint in the distance, and reversed, he told Sophie. But it was too late. He said he “got kidnapped, abducted by Venezuelan military forces … who took him across the border,” she recounted to CNN.