Vice President Mike Pence on April 2 will meet at the White House with family members of six executives from Citgo Petroleum jailed in Venezuela since 2017 and will call on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to free them, a White House official said on April 1.
The executives were arrested in Caracas during corporate meetings of Citgo, a U.S. energy refiner owned by state-run PDVSA and accused of embezzlement and money laundering.
"The vice president will reiterate the administration’s deep concern for the welfare and safety of all wrongfully detained American citizens and he will call on Maduro to release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally," the White House official said.
The family members will also meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the White House said.
The United States and most other Western countries have backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president in January, arguing that Maduro's 2018 reelection was illegitimate.
The U.S.slapped stiff sanctions on PDVSA in January aimed at cutting Maduro's government off from oil revenues. Maduro has called Guaido a puppet of the United States.
President Donald Trump is considering extending the measures to impose sanctions on foreign companies that do business with Venezuela, his national security adviser John Bolton said on March 29.
Recommended Reading
Lake Charles LNG Selects Technip Energies, KBR for Export Terminal
2024-09-20 - Lake Charles LNG has selected KTJV, the joint venture between Technip Energies and KBR, for the engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction of an LNG export terminal project on the Gulf Coast.
Entergy Picks Cresent Midstream to Develop $1B CCS for Gas-fired Power Plant
2024-09-20 - Crescent will work with SAMSUNG E&A and Honeywell on the project.
FERC Chair: DC Court ‘Erred’ by Vacating LNG Permits
2024-09-20 - Throwing out the permit for Williams’ operational REA project in the mid-Atlantic region was a mistake that could cost people “desperately” reliant on it, Chairman Willie Phillips said.
Diamondback to Sell $2.2B in Shares Held by Endeavor Stockholders
2024-09-20 - Diamondback Energy, which closed its $26 billion merger with Endeavor Energy Resources on Sept. 13, said the gross proceeds from the share’s sale will be approximately $2.2 billion.
Optimizing Direct Air Capture Similar to Recovering Spilled Wine
2024-09-20 - Direct air capture technologies are technically and financially challenging, but efforts are underway to change that.