Myanmar detains US businessman who wrote about 2021 coup on breach‑of‑trust complaint, sources say

YANGON, June 13 — An American consultant and author of a memoir about Myanmar’s 2021 coup is being detained in the country over a property dispute, a police source told AFP today.

Security consultancy founder Adam Castillo published a book recently detailing his work in the business community through Myanmar’s military putsch, after which much of the foreign community quit the country.

Castillo, a former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar, said on his LinkedIn social media profile this week that he was concluding an international promotional book tour in Malaysia.

A Yangon police source said Castillo was detained as he returned to Myanmar on Thursday over a lawsuit brought by the current director of a business organisation he once headed.

It was not clear whether the organisation was the American Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar, which could not be reached immediately for comment.

The police source, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to share information, said Castillo was accused of breach of trust over a property, a crime punishable by up to a decade in prison.

“The current group director filed a lawsuit against him related to their organisation affairs,” he said. “That’s why he was detained at the airport.”

A court remanded Castillo in custody on Friday for two weeks, he said.

A separate source with knowledge of the case, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed Castillo’s detention but could not provide any further details.

A spokesman for the US State Department said they were “aware of reports regarding the detention of a US citizen” in Myanmar, but declined to comment further because of “privacy considerations”.

A spokesman for Castillo’s security firm AGS Myanmar declined to comment when contacted by phone.

Myanmar’s 2021 military coup deposed elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained, sparked an uprising of pro-democracy protests and tipped the country into civil war.

Some countries have since treated Myanmar’s leaders as pariahs, enforcing wide-ranging trade controls.

Castillo’s book is titled Finding Our Voice: A Story of Leadership in Crisis and the American Spirit Abroad and details his work in Myanmar.

That includes “confronting the White House on failed sanctions policy”, according to a sales blurb.

“As diplomats fled, Castillo stayed, dodging bullets while evacuating employees and transforming a dying chamber of commerce into a thriving community,” the blurb said.

Myanmar was ruled by a military junta for five years following the coup.

Military-run elections concluding this year were tightly controlled, excluding Suu Kyi’s party and returning a walkover win for pro-military parliamentarians.

Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing was voted in as civilian president in a transition that many democracy watchdogs dismissed as a civilian rebranding of military rule.

Many analysts say the new administration has used the transition as a way to reform its reputation abroad. — AFP