An example of blackmail and lack of independence from the Venezuelan judicial system is a ratification of the conviction that keeps six executives of US oil company Citgo locked in Venezuela. It was issued by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) in Venezuela.
Mario A. Beroes Ríos/El Político
For these six americans, the highest court in Venezuela, composed of officials loyal to the drug regime, has ratified their long prison sentences.
They have been detained for more than four years in the South American country on alleged charges of corruption and espionage.
The TSJ’s decision disappointed the families of those sentenced, who had hoped that the court’s surprise decision to hear the appeal, and the recent visit by a high-ranking State Department official to the prison where they are being held, would mean that the government of dictator Nicolás Maduro intended to release them, as part of a gesture to commit the government of President Joe Biden to hold a dialogue on US sanctions on Venezuela.
The court did not elaborate on its decision, and the order itself was not immediately available.
In Venezuela, justice is "Pro-Maduro"
Venezuela’s judicial system is filled with officials loyal to the drug regime, who routinely issue decrees that match the president’s criteria.
Employees of the Houston oil company attended a meeting at the headquarters of Citgo’s parent company, PDVSA. Once there, heavily armed and masked security agents burst into the conference room where the directors were and took them away.
They are accused of being involved in a never-executed plan to refinance billions of dollars in bonds.
The executives appeared in November before a three-judge appeal’s panel in the same week that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention examined the case of Tomeu Vadell, one of the six arrested.
Five of the men have Venezuelan and American nationality and had lived in the United States for many years. The sixth, former president of Citgo José Pereira, is a permanent resident of that country.
Deep sadness
"We are very saddened by the continued violation of Tomeu’s human rights," the Vadell family said in a statement, also released by several news agencies. The six are being held in the Helicoide prison in Caracas along with some of Maduro’s main opponents.
Washington has repeatedly demanded his release and harshly criticized both the arrest and conviction, which it says lacked any semblance of due process.
Blackmail and political pawns
Considered by many to be political pawns in hostilities between the United States and Venezuela, the detainees have been granted house arrest twice.
However, they were returned to prison hours after President Donald Trump welcomed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to the White House in February 2020.
In April they were granted house arrest again, but this ended on October 16, the same day that Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of Maduro, was extradited from the African nation of Cape Verde to the United States to face money laundering charges.
