Jorge Alberto Fernandez, a Cuban-American dual citizen detained in Venezuela since February 2021, was also released from prison on Tuesday, his lawyer, Maria Alejandra Polio, told CNN.
Fernandez, who is not one of CITGO 6, was detained in the western city of San Cristóbal shortly after entering Venezuela from neighboring Colombia. Polio told CNN that he was charged with terrorism for carrying a small domestic drone. It is illegal to fly drones without a license in Venezuela.
The group consists of Gustavo Cárdenas, Jose ngel Pereira, Jorge Toledo, Jose Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Waddell and Alirio Jose Zambrano. Former CITGO Petroleum Corp. executives were arrested in Caracas in 2017 on charges of embezzlement, which they deny.
Juan González, the US National Security Council’s Senior Director of the Western Hemisphere and US Ambassador James Storey, met with Maduro and his wife in Caracas on the health of US citizens detained in Venezuela and the status of US sanctions on the Venezuelan oil market. discussed. government and the Venezuelan government said on Monday.
The current whereabouts of Cárdenas and Fernández are unclear, although similar circumstances in the past allowed former prisoners to fly into the United States for hours after their release.
This story has been updated Tuesday with additional reporting.