Renewed Venezuela talks offer fresh hope — and freedom for one member of Citgo 6
The release Tuesday of at least one member of the Citgo 6 — American oil company executives imprisoned in Venezuela — and one other American was a stunning breakthrough in a four-year-old standoff between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the United States.
The Miami Herald learned of the releases Tuesday evening. It did not immediately confirm the names of the freed Americans.
A few weeks ago, the families of the six Citgo Petroleum Corp. executives, detained in Venezuela since late 2017, were pushing for President Joe Biden to publicly acknowledge their cases, fearing they might be forgotten.
Then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has upended geopolitics. The Citgo 6 became a key piece of renewed negotiations between the administration and Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves in the world but has been heavily sanctioned by the U.S. government. The United States is hoping to get Venezuelan oil flowing north to replace Russian supplies.
The six executives are José Ángel Pereira, Gustavo Cardenas, Jorge Toledo, José Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Vadell and Alirio José Zambrano.
The six businessmen, who were based in Houston, flew to Caracas in November 2017 to attend an “emergency meeting,” and were arrested toward the end of their trip on embezzling, money laundering, organized crime and racketeering charges. The U.S. State Department called the charges “specious,” and the families of the businessmen call them “bogus.”
The families did not speak publicly as word of the talks leaked out, but in an interview last month, Veronica Vadell Weggeman, the daughter of Tomeu Vadell, 61, said that the families had met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken after he was appointed in January 2020, but that promises from the administration appeared to be fading.
Before Russia’s storming of Ukraine’s borders forced a world reckoning with the superpower and the United States to turn to other sources of oil, Weggerman told the Pod Hostage Diplomacy podcast that the Vadell family believed any hope for their father’s release would have to start with Biden. She couldn’t understand, she added, why the president had not mentioned the Citgo 6 publicly.
“Maybe it’s some kind of tactic they are doing to resolve the case, but honestly, the silence, it doesn’t protect us anymore,” Weggerman said in the February interview. “We need to know, and I need to know that the president is aware of our case.”
Vadell, the oldest of the six being held and and a man with numerous medical conditions, emigrated to the United States in the late 1990s with a group of other Venezuelans to work at the flagship Citgo oil refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He rose to become the plant manager of the facility, and is well known in the city.
Though the Texas-based refinery dates back to the turn of the 20th century, the Venezuelan state-owned oil and gas company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) purchased Citgo over the course of the late 1980s. That ownership has proven turbulent in recent years, with the government nearly losing control of the company as Venezuela’s economy has suffered under harsh U.S. sanctions.
Weggerman, Vadell’s daughter, said during last month’s podcast interview that the family was able to speak with him on the phone and that he was “doing okay.”
“His job in there like he always says is to be strong: mind, body and spirit,” Weggerman said. “That’s what he’s doing. His spirits are high. He’s hopeful.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 8:34 PM.
