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.

Jim Wyss, the Miami Herald’s Andean bureau chief, was detained by Venezuelan authorities Thursday while reporting on the country’s chronic shortages and looming municipal elections. Wyss remained in custody Friday afternoon. According to local sources, Wyss was initially detained by the National Guard then transferred to Venezuela’s counter military intelligence, Dirección General de Inteligencia Militar (Dgim), in San Cristóbal, Táchira.