WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Little known are the names of the Americans detained abroad despite their
years' long plight to regain their freedom, but now, thanks to a work of art
unveiled on Wednesday in the U.S. capital, the faces of more than a dozen U.S.
citizens held by foreign governments will be visible to tens of thousands.
A mural displaying the faces of
18 Americans detained overseas, including U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner
who has been held in Russia since February on drug charges, has been installed
on the side of a building in a narrow alley in the Georgetown neighborhood,
just a few miles west of the White House.
The opening of the mural is the latest act of public advocacy by
the families of detainees, who have in recent months significantly stepped up
their calls to U.S. President Joe Biden to personally intervene to bring their
loved ones home.
The poster was pasted on the side of the building on Tuesday
together with the families of the detainees. Such collaborative form of art
captures the plight of the families, who are trying to make their cause known
with their modest means, said Iowan designer Isaac Campbell who attended the
event.
"I'm like a lot of the American citizens who have no idea
the scale that this (hostage) crisis is happening, the stories behind the
families," he said.
The United States does not
provide an official figure for how many U.S. citizens are detained abroad, but
the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, named after an American journalist
abducted and killed in Syria, says that more than 60 U.S. citizens are
wrongfully detained in about 18 countries.
Some are held by top U.S. adversaries such as Iran, Russia and
Venezuela.
Pressure has been mounting on Biden as families of the detainees
shifted gears after years of quiet diplomacy that they say has not yielded
results. The detention of two-time Olympic medalist Griner in Russia in
February has also boosted the prominence of the issue.
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"She has brought this conversation to the mainstream,"
said Alexandra Forseth, whose uncle and father are among the detained former
executives of U.S. oil refiner Citgo in Venezuela.
The key question many families
raised at the event was whether any of the detainees would be able to reunite
with their families by the time the mural starts to fade out -- which could be
a matter of weeks or months.
"Our message is pretty
straightforward," said Everett Rutherford, the uncle of Matthew Heath, a
U.S. Marine veteran imprisoned in Venezuela for nearly two years. "We want
the Biden administration to use the tools available by country, by individual
case, to the effectiveness available to him in his office to bring people
home," he said.
Former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed was freed in April as part of a
prisoner swap with Russia despite ties between Moscow and Washington have been
at their worst in decades, after Biden intervened and commuted the U.S. 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 stepped up their requests to meet with
him in person.
"We need him to directly tell his administration getting
these people home is a higher priority than tangential policy goals,"
Forseth said.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration has rolled out an executive order to punish and deter hostage taking abroad.
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(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; editing by Diane Craft)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
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