Today, Saturday, US President Joe Biden announced in a statement that Venezuela has released seven US prisoners “after years of unjustified detention.”
“Today, after years of arbitrary detention in Venezuela, we are bringing home Jorge Toledo, Tomoe Fadel, Alirio Zambrano, José Luis Zambrano, José Pereira, Matthew Hit and Osman Khan,” Biden said.
A senior White House official said in a conference call that the seven Americans “are currently on their way to their homes and families in the United States.”
And the first five detainees named by Biden are former cadres of the oil company Sitgo, four Americans born in Venezuela, and a Venezuelan permanently residing in the United States. They were convicted of corruption and sentenced to eight to 13 years in prison.
Citgo is a US subsidiary of the Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation.
In March, Gustavo Cardenas, Citgo’s vice president in charge of the group’s strategic relations, was released.
Since their arrest in 2017, they have lived in an unstable relationship between Caracas and Washington.
This case has led to even greater tension between Venezuela and the United States, which has repeatedly called for the release of detainees.
According to the NGO Foro Pinal, which specializes in human rights and prison affairs, six Citgo employees are among 251 “political prisoners” in Venezuela.
