Laurie Holt was in tears when she talked to reporters. She released a video on YouTube asking President Donald Trump to get her 24-year-old son out of a prison in Venezuela, where she says he is suffering from kidney stones and painful tooth decay.
Venezuelan authorities detained Joshua Holt in June. They accused him of being a spy, a "trained gunman" and filed weapons charges against him.
"He has given up," the distraught mother said in the statement. "He now says he would rather die than spend another day there."
His mother said these are all lies. She said her son fell in love with Thamara Caleño, who is also behind bars. The couple got married and they were waiting for their visas to return to the U.S. when they were arrested.
She said her son, who is a Mormon missionary from Utah, met Caleño on a dating site for Mormons. According to the Salt Lake City-based church, there are some 165,000 Mormons in Venezuela. Her request for Trump was to "do what the previous administration could not" do.