Detained American Missionaries Leave Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela — Four American missionaries who were held for three days and questioned by Venezuelan authorities were on their way home on Saturday.

Bruce Dick, the pastor of the Bethel Evangelical Free Church in Devils Lake, N.D., where the four missionaries are from, said that they arrived in Aruba, an island off the coast of Venezuela, on Saturday morning. From there they planned to return to the United States. He said that it was not clear whether they were deported or had left voluntarily.

Venezuela, a major oil exporter to the United States, is struggling with a deepening economic crisis, with many basic goods in short supply. President Nicolás Maduro, a leftist, blames capitalist enemies, including the United States, for the country’s troubles and has accused Washington of backing conspiracies to overthrow him. The United States says that is not true and has pressed Venezuela to release opposition politicians it has arrested and to guarantee the human rights of antigovernment demonstrators.

A version of this article appears in print on March 1, 2015, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Detained Missionaries Leave Venezuela . Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe

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