Time USA - 06.04.2020

50 Time April 6–13, 2020

green uniforms until finally one of them raised his

arms and called her name: “Dennysse, I’m here.” It

had b een l ess t han n ine months since masked secu-

rity a gents had stormed a conference room in Cara-

cas a nd a rrested Tomeu Vadell and five other Citgo

executives, but he was unrecognizable. The usually

robust, 6-ft. 1-in. Louisiana businessman had lost

60 lb., and his skin was tinged with gray after months

without s un. “ I c ouldn’t believe it,” Dennysse says.

“When I hugged him, he was all bones.”

Nearly two years later, the six men, five o f t hem

American citizens, face a danger graver even than

their continuing imprisonment in Venezuelan

strongman Nicolás Maduro’s El Helicoide prison:

COVID-19. Already there have been four cases of the

new c orona virus reported in El Helicoide. The men

have been trying to protect themselves in a crowded

cell with no running water, armed only with undi-

luted bleach, which burns their hands a nd releases

fumes that worsen their respiratory ailments. For

the detained men— weakened by malnourishment

and u nder lying h ealth conditions—the virus would

likely be a death sentence, their families say. “We are

all absolutely desperate,” said Carlos Añez, whose

stepfather Jorge Toledo is one of the imprisoned

Americans.

The coronavirus pandemic is only the latest

of the powerful unseen forces that the Texas- and

Louisiana- based e xecutives have faced during their

28 months in prison. First among them is Maduro’s

need for pawns in his long- running political and eco-

nomic battle with Washington and the Trump Ad-

ministration, which h as c alled for Maduro’s ouster.

Then there are the business interests of the men’s em-

ployer, Citgo, the Houston-based U.S. subsidiary of

Venezuela’s state-owned oil giant. And then there are

the cold-eyed calculations of Maduro’s opponents in

Venezuela and abroad, for whom the safety and well-

being of the six men are not the top priority.

The result, the families of the men say, has b een

a l ack o f u rgency to get their husbands and fathers

home. Despite well- intentioned efforts by some law-

makers and legal advocates to rally support, the case

has remained largely out of public view. Citgo has

fa iled to take concrete action to f ree its detained e x-

ecutives or to offer more than token support, accord-

ing to the families. A meeting with Vice President

Mike Pence last April amounted to little more than

a “photo op,” they say.

Now, with their court hearings postponed at least

18 t imes but no date set for their trial on charges of

embezzlement, t he families say that the COVID-

19 pandemic might offer an unexpected opening.

Already other countries including Iran have re-

leased U.S. detainees on humanitarian grounds. On

March 19, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put out a

statement calling for the release of the “wrongfully

detained men,” who “face a grave health risk if t hey

become infected.” The families have begged U.S. of-

ficials to use any leverage. “This is life or death,” says

Vadell’s daughter Cristina. Now the families are left

with t he h ope, a nd t he fear, that the COVID-19 out-

break could bring the saga of the Citgo Six to an end,

one way or another.

The weekend before Thanksgiving in 2017,

the six businessmen were summoned to attend an

unusual last-minute meeting in Caracas. Nelson

Martinez, the president of Petróleos de Venezu-

ela, S. A. ( PDVSA), which owns Citgo, was demand-

ing t o s ee t he c ompany’s vice presidents to discuss

budgets. All six men had been promoted to these

executive positions in the preceding months, and

the company insisted that they fly there together,

chartering one of Citgo’s company planes. Before he

left, Vadell promised his wife he’d be home i n Lake

Charles, La., in time to roast and carve the turkey,

his favorite tradition.

Just a day into what was supposed to be a t hree-

day business trip, armed security agents stormed the

conference room where they had gathered. Hours

later, Venezuela’s chief prosecutor, Tarek William

Saab, announced that the six men had been arrested

as part of a probe into “corruption of the worst kind.”

On s tate t elevision, he held u p a document he said

proved that the executives had sought to profit from

a d eal t o refinance $4 billion i n Citgo bonds by sign-

ing off on terms that had not been approved and

were unfavorable to Venezuela. The refinancing n e-

gotiations were approved by PDVSA’s b oard in June

2017, according to documents reviewed by TIME,

and most of the executives held roles that would not

even have made them privy to such talks, their law-

yers say. A deal was never signed.

The a rrest of the Citgo Six occurred as Maduro,

who was facing an election, sought to consolidate

his control over the crown jewel of the Venezue-

lan economy overseas. By purging the American

World

WHEN SHE WALKED INTO

THE LARGE CELL DEEP

INSIDE VENEZUELA’ S

MOST NOTORIOUS PRISON

IN JULY 2018, DENNYSSE

VADELL COULD NOT FIND

HER HUSBAND. SHE

FRANTICALLY SCANNED

THE FACES OF THE

ASSEMBLED MEN IN DARK

ALIRIO

ZAMBRANO

VP of Corp us

Christi Refinery

WHO ARE

THE CITGO

SIX?

JORGE

TOLEDO

VP of supply

and mark eting

JOSE

PEREIRA

Chief exe cutive

TOMEU

VADELL

VP of refining

GUSTAVO

CARDENAS

VP of public

affairs

JOSE LUIS

ZAMBRANO

VP of shared

serv ices

WVENEZUELA.indd 50 3/25/20 1:02 PM