Posted on 11/26/2020 9:16:22 PM PST by BenLurkin
CITGO employees Tomeu Vadell, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, Alirio Jose Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano and Jose Angel Pereira were sentenced to between 8 and 13 years, the source said.
The guilty verdicts punctuate a years-long saga that began in November 2017 when the men received a call from the head of Venezuelan oil giant PDVSA summoning them to Caracas for a last-minute budget meeting.
When they arrived, armed and masked security agents arrested them on embezzlement charges stemming from a never-executed proposal to refinance some $4 billion in CITGO bonds by offering a 50% stake in the company as collateral.
The families of the "CITGO 6" — five of them American citizens and all with deep roots in Texas and Louisiana — say the men are being held in inhumane conditions, sharing overcrowded basement cells in a military counterintelligence prison and are suffering severe weight loss in a country plagued by food shortages.
Gabriela Zambrano Hill, the daughter of Alirio Jose and niece of Jose Luis, called the hearings "farcical" and expressed concern about the men's potential exposure to Covid-19.
In a statement earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for their "unconditional release" and return to the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Or what?
Trusting socialists is criminally stupid.
There was some sort of Rescue Team sent from USA to Venezuela a few months ago, after the last election.
At least one of the Team leaders is an ex-Seal.
From my understanding, they made every mistake that could be made w/o getting killed by Maduro’s men.
They got caught and imprisoned by Maduro’s men, where they remain to this day. I have heard no further updates on these men. Keywords: Sad, Embarrassing, Baffled.
I appreciate what they attempted. These men are risking their lives, not me. I just sort of expected more efficiency.
American papers should start publishing the names of the Venezuelan Marxists and corrupt police/soldiers “for future action”.
Let the red bastards sweat at night that the knock at their door is for them this time.
This is what you get if you work for communists! Nobody in their clear mind should work for CITGO after Chavez took over.
I watched a documentary about prisons in Venezuela. Worst prisons ever. Way beyond creepy.
No one in this country should ever buy gasoline from CITGO.
The criminals arresting the criminals
IIRC, that was a massive intelligence failure. It was thought that dissident members of the Venezuelan military and police would support them, and in fact other US military backup was on its way. But the support never happened, there were a couple of members of the military or police who did step forward and were promptly disappeared, and the American operatives were lost. I think Bolton was in charge of this and resigned shortly afterwards.
Supposedly the US had bad information on dissent within the regime (CIA, anybody?). Also, the military and the police are full of Cuban agents, from top to bottom,so the likelihood of anti-regime plans being allowed to build among them, unknown to the VZ government, is zero.
These execs planned to offer bonds (50% of the Company, IIRC) worth billions at fire sale prices under the attempted US Coup against Venezuela. The Faux Juan Guaido Presidency Coup. These execs are viewed as traitors by many Venezuelans in Venezuela.
I’m sure Pompeo is angry. His regime change gambit failed.
Operation Gideon that involved Venezuelan dissidents and a private American military company designed to capture and remove Maduro and other high-level figures in his government and expel them from the country........it was a failed coup attempt.
Yes!
I just checked, CITGO is still owned by the state of Venezuela. We should not buy their gas.
On Venezuela, Biden has signaled no change in sanctions or indictments of top officials, but he has said he plans to focus more on the humanitarian plight of a people suffering under a harsh autocracy. At least in the short term, President Nicolás Maduro is unlikely to enjoy a major break in his international isolation.
The Sniffer's first act will be to send Kammie down there to sing the "International" with Maduro.
Are you assuming Biden hasn’t answered the siren song of corporate greed for bankers, MIC, oil, and agriculture?
Venezuela doesn’t grow GMO crops, allow glycophosphate, IIRC.
A Venezuelan platform in the Caribbean, and the oil Pipeline outside Carracas go boom. Kinda like Wyatt's torch.
Wonder why?
5.56mm
Who did they think they were/ The Bidens?
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