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Venezuela Releases U.S. Journalist After 2 Days

CARACAS, Venezuela — The Venezuelan authorities on Saturday released an American journalist who had been detained and questioned by military intelligence officials.

The journalist, Jim Wyss, is the Andes region bureau chief for The Miami Herald. He was detained Thursday near Venezuela’s western border with Colombia while on a reporting trip.

In a telephone interview in Caracas, where he was released, Mr. Wyss said the authorities who had questioned him never explained to him why he had been detained. He said that he had been treated well and that he would be allowed to remain in Venezuela and continue his work as a journalist.

Officials with the Information Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Wyss lives in Bogotá, Colombia, but periodically visits Venezuela.

He said he was detained on Thursday in San Cristóbal, a western city, after going to a National Guard site to seek information for an article.

“They decided to dig deeper into who I was,” Mr. Wyss said. He was first handed over to military intelligence officers and eventually to immigration officials, he said. He was brought to Caracas on Friday.

“I think the release could be an acknowledgment that I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Mr. Wyss said. “I think there was a lot of tension along the border, and I got scooped up in it. It became clear to them I was just a reporter trying to do a job.”

Venezuela is struggling with economic problems, including a 54 percent annual inflation rate and shortages of basic goods. President Nicolás Maduro says right-wing enemies here, in Colombia and in the United States are waging an economic war against his socialist government.

He and other officials have suggested that the local and foreign news media are conspiring against the government.

In a television appearance last week, the information minister, Delcy Rodríguez, said several news media outlets, including The Miami Herald and The New York Times, portrayed Venezuela as a country in crisis. She accused the international news media of following “this script of a continuous and silent coup in Venezuela.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Venezuela Releases U.S. Journalist After 2 Days. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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