Wednesday, March 22, 2023
 
 

Venezuela arrests US oil executives after Guaidó meets Trump

- Advertisement -

Six American oil executives who were under house arrest in Venezuela have been rounded up by police just hours after US President Donald Trump met Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaidó at the White House.
After disputing president Nicolas Maduro‘s 2018 controversial re-election, Guaidó proclaimed himself the country’s interim president, and was backed by almost 60 countries, including the EU, the US and UK.
Maduro condemned Trump’s embrace of Guaidó. Under Maduro’s leadership, Venezuela has suffered an economic collapse. More than 4 million citizens have fled the country, many to Colombia.
The brother of two of the six detained men, Alirio Zambrano, said on Thursday that the executives of Citgo were taken from their homes last night by the SEBIN intelligence police. Citgo is a Venezuelan-owned oil company whose headquarters are based in Texas.
The SEBIN is Venezuela’s intelligence service, controlled by Maduro, who has the support of the armed forces, as well as of his allies China, Russia, Iran, the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, and Cuba.
Zambrano added that their current whereabouts are unknown: “We demand to know they are safe but more importantly their freedom!,” he said on social media.
The six men were taken by masked security agents while at a meeting in Caracas in 2017. They had been lured to Venezuela in order to attend a meeting at the headquarters of Citgo’s parent, state-run oil giant PDVSA. Media reported that they granted house arrest two months ago in the attempt of Maduro’s government to mend ties with the Trump administration.
They are awaiting trial on corruption charges stemming from a never executed plan to refinance some $4 billion in Citgo bonds by offering a 50% stake in the company as collateral.
The State Department later confirmed that Citgo execs were arrested by Maduro’s secret police and incarcerated in Helicoide Prison.
“We condemn this cruel and indefensible action and demand that their long, unjust detention come to an end and they be allowed to leave Venezuela. We urge the regime to release unconditionally all persons who are being detained, including National Assembly deputies,” said Elliot Abrams, US special representative for Venezuela.
There has been no comment from Venezuelan officials.

- Advertisement -

Subscribe to our newsletter

Latest

EU-Turkey earthquake relief conference: Time to get serious

The European Union is hosting a reconstruction conference in...

Cambodia’s current government is the face of tropical Fascism

There is no hope that the authoritarianism that the world sees in places like Russia, China and Cambodia can ever be interpreted as a peaceful and benign phenomenon, or that it should be accepted by an implicit racist or discriminatory assumption that some cultures just don’t have a democratic tradition and aren’t quite capable of ever developing one.

Energy supply diversification out of Russia’s orbit is a top priority for Bulgaria

Bulgaria intends to diversify its energy resources, including supplying...

Recovery from the disaster of the century needs more than a few months of international assistance

Two devastating earthquakes hit the Turkish-Syrian border on February...

Don't miss

EU-Turkey earthquake relief conference: Time to get serious

The European Union is hosting a reconstruction conference in...

Cambodia’s current government is the face of tropical Fascism

There is no hope that the authoritarianism that the world sees in places like Russia, China and Cambodia can ever be interpreted as a peaceful and benign phenomenon, or that it should be accepted by an implicit racist or discriminatory assumption that some cultures just don’t have a democratic tradition and aren’t quite capable of ever developing one.

Energy supply diversification out of Russia’s orbit is a top priority for Bulgaria

Bulgaria intends to diversify its energy resources, including supplying...

Recovery from the disaster of the century needs more than a few months of international assistance

Two devastating earthquakes hit the Turkish-Syrian border on February...

Georgia has shown the world that a Kremlin project can be defeated

Over the past few days, the world’s attention was...

Cambodia’s current government is the face of tropical Fascism

There is no hope that the authoritarianism that the world sees in places like Russia, China and Cambodia can ever be interpreted as a peaceful and benign phenomenon, or that it should be accepted by an implicit racist or discriminatory assumption that some cultures just don’t have a democratic tradition and aren’t quite capable of ever developing one.

Georgia has shown the world that a Kremlin project can be defeated

Over the past few days, the world’s attention was on Georgia. We saw massive protests fueled by anger, concerns and fear, and eventually, we...

Morocco is key to the EU’s Neighborhood Policy

Morocco has positioned and developed itself as an indisputable oasis of social and economic stability in a part of the world where such claims are few and far between; a fact that is not lost on many of Europe's politicians.

Putin’s New START withdrawal has broad implications

Vladimir Putin continues to persuade Russians that the West provoked his imperialist war of aggression against Ukraine. His announcement that he would no longer...

Sanctions, sanctions everywhere

On February 24, 2023, the US Government alongside G-7 leaders announced via a White House statement a new set of trade and economic measures...

Providing Ukraine with advanced Western fighters is a logical step towards battlefield success

While Ukraine may have weathered the storm of Russia’s initial onslaught and retaliated with a force and determination largely thought to have been beyond...

Russia’s war in Ukraine and high fertilizer costs are causing global food crisis

Russia’s war in Ukraine and high gas prices have boosted the cost of fertilizers having a major downstream effect on the global food supply,...

Iranian diaspora’s push for democracy: Rejects the past, advocates for the future

In recent rallies and conferences, including in Paris, Berlin, London, Belgium, Oslo, Rome, Washington, DC and Toronto, Iranian expatriates and associated organizations have called...