At least one American member of the so-called CITGO 6 has been released from prison in Venezuela, they told CNN a lawyer who assists several of CITGO 6 and a spokesperson for a Venezuelan non-governmental organization that provides legal assistance to prisoners in the country. The other former detainee had been in prison for just over a year.
Gustavo Cárdenas, a US citizen detained in Caracas since 2017 who is one of six former oil executives at US refinery CITGO, was released from prison on Tuesday night, the lawyer and the NGO said.
Jorge Alberto Fernandez, a Cuban-American citizen detained in Venezuela since February 2021, was also released from prison on Tuesday, his lawyer Maria Alejandra Poleo told CNN.
Fernandez, who is not one of the CITGO 6, had been detained in the western city of San Cristobal shortly after entering Venezuela from neighboring Colombia. He was charged with terrorism for transporting a small domestic drone, Poleo told CNN. Flying a drone without a license is illegal in Venezuela.
The releases followed a high-profile visit by US officials to Caracas on Saturday – the first since diplomatic ties between the two countries broke down in 2019.
US President Joe Biden praised the release of the two men in a statement Tuesday night, saying they had been “wrongly detained” and that they “will now be able to embrace their families once more”. Biden said holding Americans unfairly in captivity was always unacceptable.
“And even as we celebrate the return of Cardenas and Fernandez, we also remember the names and stories of all Americans who are being unjustly held against their will – in Venezuela, in Russia, in Afghanistan, in Syria, in China, in Iran. , and around the world. My Administration will continue to fight to bring everyone home,” Biden said.
Lawyers and family members for CITGO 6 have often accused Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro of using the group as “pawns” to exert pressure on the US government.
In recent months, the men have been taken to prison under house arrest in apparent retaliation for the US extradition of Alex Saab, a Colombian financier close to Maduro.
The group is composed of Cárdenas, José Ángel Pereira, Jorge Toledo, José Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Vadell and Alirio José Zambrano. Former CITGO Petroleum Corp executives were detained in 2017 in Caracas on charges of embezzlement, which they deny.
US National Security Council Chief Director for the Western Hemisphere Juan Gonzalez and US Ambassador James Story met with Maduro and his wife in Caracas to discuss the health of US citizens detained in Venezuela and the state of US sanctions on the Venezuelan oil market, both the US and Venezuelan governments said on Monday.
Cárdenas and Fernandez’s current whereabouts are unclear, although former prisoners in similar circumstances in the past were allowed to fly to the United States hours after their release.
Source: CNN Brasil
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