One of the Americans currently detained in Venezuela is pleading for President Joe Biden to bring him back home.
By Washington Examiner – Mike Brest
Jul 11, 2022
Jorge Toledo, one of the six American oil executives known as the “CITGO 6” currently being held by the Maduro regime , wrote a letter addressed to the president dated July 5 that was obtained by the Washington Examiner on Monday. The group of oil executives has been held since 2017.
“By the date of this letter, it has been 1,686 days since my arbitrary and unjust imprisonment by the Venezuela military intelligence service along with another five colleagues later known as the ‘Citgo 6,'” he wrote. “I am calling on your humanity, courage and decisive leadership to put an end to this difficult and extreme circumstance.”
“My colleagues and I went through a broken judicial system which violated all proceedings and legal due process ending in an unfair trial, condemning me without any evidence of a crime, without committing a crime,” Toledo added. “Mr. President, I am an innocent man; perhaps my only crime here is being an American.”
He also wrote about his health problems, including “pneumonia, kidney failure, covid, high blood pressure, allergies, weight loss, scabies, [and] amebiasis amongst other” issues.
Five of the six members of the “CITGO 6” are currently detained, while one member and another American were released from Venezuelan detainment in March. Matthew Heath, Luke Denman, and Airan Berry are also being detained in the country.
Heath’s family said last month that he unsuccessfully attempted to end his life.
“Early this morning we received word through private channels – not from our government – that Matthew was rushed to a military hospital after attempting suicide and is now fighting for his life,” his aunt, Trudy Rutherford, said in a statement at the time.
Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens and Ambassador Jimmy Story traveled to Caracas about two weeks ago to have “discussions about the welfare and safety of wrongfully detained U.S. nationals in Venezuela and to press for their release,” a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
Carstens met with the wrongfully detained Americans and was able to “assess their well-being,” though the spokesperson did not specify which of the eight Americans wrongfully detained he saw.
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Read More: Washington Examiner – American detained in Venezuela writes Biden, pleading for help
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