2 American oil execs jailed in Venezuela put on home arrest
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Two American oil executives jailed in
Venezuela have been released and granted house arrest in the South American
nation, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said late Thursday.
The two are among six Citgo executives detained more than
two years ago while on a business trip to Caracas. The former governor recently
visited Caracas on a humanitarian mission and met with President Nicolás Maduro
to press for their release.
“This is a positive and important first step,” Richardson
said in a statement, adding his gratitude to Maduro for remaining engaged in
the dialogue started earlier this month in a personal meeting.
The two men released to house arrest are Gustavo Cárdenas
and Jorge Toledo, the governor said.
Maduro’s government didn't immediately comment on the men’s
release.
María Elena Cardenas, who lives near Houston, said she was
relieved to learn of the transfer when her husband called Thursday night and
said she was desperately looking for a place for him to sleep since the family
no longer has a home in Caracas.
“It’s such a relief to have him in a place where he can
breathe fresh air coming through an open window,” she said.
The six men were called to Caracas just before Thanksgiving
in 2017 for a meeting at the headquarters of Citgo’s parent, Venezuela's
state-run oil giant PDVSA. They were hauled away from a meeting by masked
security agents.
Venezuelan authorities accuse the men of corruption stemming
from an alleged plan to refinance some $4 billion in Citgo bonds by offering a
50% stake in the company as collateral. Prosecutors accuse the men of
maneuvering to personally benefit from the proposed deal.
All of the six men had been released to house arrest late
last year before being taken back into custody two months later.
Officials in June released a video of the men in jail after
relatives appealed for international help in securing their release over fears
about the men’s health amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Richardson, who heads a center that works to free jailed
U.S. citizens around the world, made a brief visit to Venezuela earlier this
month, saying as he left that he had been unable to secure their release
despite talking with Maduro.
The other four jailed Citgo executives are: Tomeu Vadell,
Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano and Jose Pereira.
Two other U.S. citizens jailed in Venezuela are former Green
Berets — Luke Denman and Airan Berry — arrested in May while participating in a
botched raid organized from neighboring Colombia to oust Maduro.
Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
during the Clinton presidency, has opened diplomatic back channels to several
hostile governments, including Iran, Cuba and North Korea, to win the release
of some 40 Americans.
Washington and Caracas are locked in a tense relationship,
with the Trump administration backing opposition leader Juan Guaidó as
Venezuela's legitimate president and leading a campaign of dozens of nations
seeking to pressure Maduro out. They blame him for the once wealthy nation's
economic and social collapse.
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