Four Years of Wrongful Detention for the Citgo 6

Ned Price, Department Spokesperson

Today marks four years since U.S. nationals Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cardenas, José Pereira, Tomeu Vadell, José Luis Zambrano, and Alirio Zambrano traveled to Venezuela for a CITGO Petroleum business meeting and were not allowed to come home.  After being invited to Venezuela, masked security agents detained all six men and imprisoned them on specious charges without due process or access to a fair trial.  As a fourth Thanksgiving holiday approaches, we continue to seek their unconditional return and the release of all U.S. nationals wrongfully detained overseas.

Secretary Blinken will continue to relentlessly pursue the release of these individuals.  To the Venezuelan authorities who have imprisoned them, we ask that they be allowed to return to the United States to reunite with their families.