Maduro regime granted house arrest to six Citgo executives arrested since 2017

Nicolás Maduro’s diet granted house arrest to six Citgo executives on Friday, the American subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA, arrested in 2017 in the Caribbean country, reported The Associated Press.

The six senior officials of the company, all Venezuelans, but five of them with dual American nationality, were arrested in November 2017 after being summoned to a meeting at the Caracas office.

Since then, the US government – the Donald Trump and Joe Biden administrations – have repeatedly called for his release. In November 2020, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that “after having already spent more than three years unfairly detained in Venezuela on these deceptive charges, mostly in horrific conditions of detention, these six should be returned immediately to the United States“.

And in February of this year, the current leader of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, contacted the families of the six executives and assured them he would make their release a priority.

The businessmen have been accused by the regime of deliberate embezzlement, money laundering and association to commit a crime, among other crimes. The former president of Citgo, Jose pereira, was sentenced to 13 years and seven months in prison and a fine of two million dollars. The other five former vice-presidents: José Luis Zambrano, Alirio José Zambrano, Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell and Gustavo Cárdenas they were sentenced to eight years and 10 months in prison.

The crimes for which Ruimwyk has been convicted are “the intentional embezzlement of his own accord and the concert of an official with a contractor”, as well as the “crime of association with the aim of committing a crime”, reported the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of the Venezuelan dictatorship. at the time.

Ruimwyk, they said at the time, will also have to pay a fine of two million dollars, which is equivalent to “40% of the value of the property which is the subject of the crime”. Likewise, former directors Tomeu Vadell Recalde, Jorge Luis Toledo Kohury, Gustavo Adolfo Cárdenas Cardona, José Luis Zambrano Colina and Alirio José Zambrano Colina, were sentenced for “official’s agreement with the contractor and the criminal association“.

The court in the hands of the Chavist regime also ruled that all convicts are disqualified “for the exercise of public functions” and therefore “will not be able to run for office elected by the people”.

On November 21, 2017, the Attorney General of the Venezuelan dictatorship, Tarek Saab, reported on the arrest of these citizens after having signed contracts which “compromised the national heritage and the future” of the PDVSA subsidiary “without relying on the approval of the National Executive”.

The regime had already released the group once, in December 2019. However, three months later, they were abruptly re-imprisoned by the security forces. It was the same day that Asset received at the White House the interim president of the Caribbean country, Juan Guaidó, which he had invited the day before to his State of the Union address to Congress.

After ignoring Maduro’s legitimacy as president of Venezuela due to the fraudulent 2018 election, Washington granted Guaidó –recognized as president in charge by fifty countries – controlling Citgo.

The Joe Biden government has reiterated its support for Guaidó, in turn calling Maduro a “brutal dictator”.

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