CITGO 6 found guilty and sentenced in Venezuela

by



[ad_1]

CITGO employees Tomeu Vadell, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Alirio Jose Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano and Jose Angel Pereira were sentenced to between 8 and 13 years, the source said.

Efforts to free the men will continue despite the conviction, according to the source.

The guilty verdicts punctuate a multi-year saga that began in November 2017 when the men received a call from the head of Venezuelan oil giant PDVSA summoning them to Caracas for a last-minute budget meeting.

Upon arrival, armed, masked security guards arrested them on charges of embezzlement stemming from a never-executed proposal to refinance some $ 4 billion of CITGO bonds by offering a 50% stake in the company in guarantee.

CITGO said they were “distressed to read this result” and “hope for a resolution that will lead to their early release,” in a statement to CNN.

Families of “CITGO 6” – including five US citizens and all with deep roots in Texas and Louisiana – say the men are being held in inhumane conditions, sharing overcrowded cells in a military counterintelligence prison and suffering from severe weight loss in a country plagued by food shortages.

But the case has largely escaped sight as Venezuela engages in turmoil and relations between it and the United States have been torn apart by the Trump administration’s strong support for opposition leader Juan Guaidó. in his battle to oust Nicolas Maduro.

Two of the men – Cárdenas and Toledo – were released under house arrest in July after a humanitarian visit to Caracas by former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and a team of non-government negotiators.

The men began having weekly hearings in August after more than two years in detention.

Gabriela Zambrano Hill, daughter of Alirio Jose and niece of Jose Luis, called the hearings “far-fetched” and expressed concern about the potential exposure of men to Covid-19.

Carlos Añez, Toledo’s son-in-law, told CNN he hoped the hearing would result in a “favorable and correct resolution” at its conclusion.

In a statement earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for their “unconditional release” and return to the United States.

“These six Americans and their families have suffered enough; it is time for Maduro to put politics aside and allow these families to be reunited,” he said.

“No one should doubt the president’s commitment to bring home all US citizens taken hostage or wrongly detained abroad.”

“The President’s Special Envoy for Hostages Roger Carstens, Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams, and I will continue to pursue our mission to secure the release of CITGO-6, and we will do our utmost to achieve this goal,” Pompeo said.

This story was updated with additional information on Thursday.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Paul LeBlanc contributed to this report.

[ad_2]

Source link