Venezuela detains former Citgo executives after the extradition of Alex Saab to the United States

Six former directors of Citgo, a subsidiary of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in USA, who are serving a sentence for corruption, returned to jail this Saturday, after being in house arrest since April, lawyers and family members informed AFP.

“About 1 hour ago” They were arrested José Pereira Ruimwyk, former president of Citgo, and former directors Tomeu Vadell, Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cárdenas, José Luis Zambrano and Alirio ZambranoJesus Loreto, Vadell’s lawyer, told AFP.

The six executives, sentenced to sentences of between 8 and 13 years for corruption, had been serving a house-to-jail measure since April this year after being released from the Helicoide in Caracas, headquarters of the Venezuelan intelligence service.

“For the second time they have been taken”, Verónica Vadell, daughter of the 60-year-old executive, told AFP.

“My dad just said to my mom: ‘They come looking for us,’ and nothing else. We don’t know where it is going. Again it is an enforced disappearance ”, He continued, not knowing which security body detained them.

The arrest occurs moments after knowing the extradition of the Colombian Alex Saab, a close collaborator of President Nicolás Maduro, this Saturday to the United States from Cape Verde, accused of money laundering.

The so-called “Citgo six” were arrested in November 2017 and sentenced in 2020, under the protest of the Washington government.

Five of the six have American nationality, in addition to Venezuelan. The other, Pereira, the former president of Citgo, has permanent residence in the United States.

Pereira was sentenced to 13 years and 7 months in prison for the crimes of “fraudulent embezzlement”, “concert of an official with a contractor” and “association to commit a crime” and was also fined 2 million dollars, according to the Venezuelan justice. .

The other five were sentenced to 8 years and 10 months in prison.

It is not the first time that the benefit of house by jail is withdrawn. They already got it in 2019 and lost a year later. And now, after six months.

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