“CITGO 6” oil executives released to house arrest in Venezuela in apparent goodwill gesture to US

The group, jointly called “CITGO 6,” included previous executives of US-based refinery CITGO. They were detained in 2017 on embezzlement charges originating from a never-executed proposition to re-finance some $4 billion in CITGO bonds by using a 50% stake in the business as security. In 2015, they were sentenced to in between 8 and 13 years in jail.

In a declaration, the Richardson Center — led by previous New Mexico Gov. Costs Richardson, who has actually functioned as a non-government arbitrator to lobby for the guys’s release — stated: “We are relieved to hear today that Tomeu Vadell, Alirio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano, Gustavo Cárdenas, Jorge Toledo and Jose Pereira, known as the CITGO-6, have been released from prison and granted house arrest in Venezuela. This is a positive and important step that should help secure their wellbeing during the COVID-19 outbreak in Venezuela.”

Households of the group invited the news and thanked those who had actually been associated with the efforts to get them launched.

“We wish our loved one Tomeu were on a plane to the USA with unconditional freedom but are very grateful for this positive step made possible by Gov. Richardson and his team, Sec. Blinken & the State Department, the Vatican, and other allies around the world,” the household of Tomeu Vadell stated in a declaration.

The Zambrano household likewise invited the news, including a declaration that the households had actually been worried for the “health and wellbeing of the men amid crowded prison conditions and the risks associated with the Corona virus.”