Venezuela rounds up US oil executives

Six American oil executives under house arrest in Venezuela were rounded up by police hours after President Donald Trump met Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s chief opponent at the White House, according to family members of the men.

Alirio Zambrano said early Thursday that the executives of Houston-based Citgo were abruptly taken from their homes the night before by the SEBIN intelligence police. Zambrano, the brother of two of the six detained men, said their current whereabouts is unknown.

“We demand to know they are safe, but, more important, their freedom!” Zambrano said on social media, adding that he was very worried about the detainees.

The US State Department and the Maduro government have yet to comment.

But the move comes two months after the men were granted house arrest and just hours after Trump welcomed opposition leader Juan Guaidó to the White House in a show of support for his flagging, year-old campaign to oust Maduro.

The embattled leader condemned Trump’s embrace of Guaidó, while socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, who is widely seen as the second most powerful person in the government, vowed to retaliate for the meeting.

“Every time they do something, we’re going to turn harder to the left and see who squeals,” Cabello said Wednesday night in his weekly TV programme.

The six men were hauled away by masked security agents while at a meeting in Caracas just before Thanksgiving 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.

The group flew out on a corporate jet. They included Tomeu Vadell, vice-president of refining; Gustavo Cardenas, head of strategic shareholder relations as well as government and public affairs; Jorge Toledo, vice-president of supply and marketing; Alirio Zambrano, vice-president and general manager of Citgo’s Corpus Christi refinery; Jose Luis Zambrano, vice-president of shared services; and Jose Angel Pereira, president of Citgo.

In recent weeks, speculation has swirled that Maduro’s government may release the men in a bid to mend ties with the Trump administration, which has been aggressively pushing for his removal.

The men are awaiting trial on corruption charges stemming from a never-executed plan to refinance some US$4 billion in Citgo bonds by offering a 50 per cent stake in the company as collateral.

Prosecutors accuse the men of manoeuvring to benefit from the proposed deal.

AP