An American who is part of the group of six former directors of the Citgo oil companyconvicted in Venezuela for corruption, was released on Tuesday, days after a White House delegation met with President Nicolás Maduro, one of his lawyers told AFP.
“Confirmed that the released person is Gustavo Cárdenasthe other five are still detained,” said lawyer Jesús Loreto, who announced that “someone else is being released, but I don’t know where he is or who he is.”
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Known as the “Citgo 6”, six former Citgo executives -five US nationals and one permanent resident- have been detained in Venezuela since 2017. Washington has called on numerous occasions for their release.
The release of Cárdenas, who served as Vice President of Strategic Relations, It arrives after Maduro received a delegation from the Joe Biden administration over the weekendwhich this Tuesday prohibited imports to the United States of oil and derivatives from Russia amid sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine.
The meeting was a turn in the broken relations between Washington and Caracas, since the White House is unaware of Maduro’s re-election as president in 2018calling it “fraudulent”.
The conditions in which Cárdenas was released are not knownif he is free of charges or if he is released under judicial measures, according to the defense.
