AmericasVenezuela releases former Citgo executives to house arrest -source
ReutersLuc Cohen
4 minute read
Venezuela has released from jail six former executives of U.S.-based refining company Citgo and put them on house arrest, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday, more than three years after they were arrested on corruption charges.
The officials were detained in November 2017 after being called into a meeting at the Caracas office of state oil company PDVSA, which owns Citgo.
The detention of the former executives, who include five naturalized U.S. citizens and one permanent resident, has been a major sticking point in tense relations between Caracas and Washington, which has repeatedly called for the men s release and called their detention unlawful.
Venezuela gives US oilmen house arrest in gesture to Biden
by Joshua Goodman, The Associated Press
Posted Apr 30, 2021 8:17 pm EDT
Last Updated Apr 30, 2021 at 8:28 pm EDT
MIAMI Six American oil executives jailed in Venezuela more than three years ago on corruption charges were granted house arrest on Friday in a gesture of goodwill toward the Biden administration as it reviews its policy toward the politically turbulent South American country.
The partial release of the six employees of Houston-based Citgo was confirmed to The Associated Press by lawyers and family members of the men.
Tomeu Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cardenas and Jose Pereira were hauled away by masked security agents while at a meeting in Caracas just before Thanksgiving in 2017. They had been lured to Venezuela in order to attend a meeting at the headquarters of Citgo’s parent, state-run oil giant PDVSA.
Joshua Goodman
FILE - This undated file photo posted on Twitter on June 18, 2020 by Venezuela s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, shows CITGO oil executives Jose Angel Pereira, from left to right, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Jose Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Vadell and Alirio Jose Zambrano, standing outside the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, in Caracas, Venezuela. The oil executives jailed in Venezuela more than three years ago on corruption charges were granted house arrest on Friday, April 30, 2021, in a gesture of goodwill toward the Biden administration as it reviews its policy toward the politically turbulent South American country. (Posted on Twitter by Jorge Arreaza/Venezuela s Foreign Ministry via AP File)
The detention of the former executives, which includes five naturalised US citizens and one permanent resident, has been a major sticking point in tense relations between Caracas and Washington, which has repeatedly called for the men's release and called their detention unlawful