By Jennifer Hansler, Stefano Pozzebon and Kylie Atwood @ CNN, 10:21 PM EDT, June 27

A US government delegation quietly traveled to Venezuela “for discussions about the welfare and safety of US nationals in Venezuela,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN on Monday.

The visit by Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens and US Ambassador Jimmy Story, who heads the Venezuelan Affairs Unit, to the capital city of Caracas comes about a week after Matthew Heath, an American unlawfully detained there, attempted suicide.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro acknowledged the visit by the delegation, which was first reported by The Associated Press, in a televised address Monday [....] 

Heath is one of at least eight Americans currently known to be wrongfully detained in Venezuela. Five of the six American oil executives known as the “CITGO 6” – Tomeu Vadell, Jorge Toledo, Alirio Jose Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano and Jose Angel Pereira – who were arrested in Venezuela more than four years ago, remain detained there, as do Americans Luke Denman and Airan Berry.

Two Americans who had been detained there, including one of the CITGO 6, were released in March following the visit of two top US government officials to Caracas [....]