LatinNews Daily - 23 March 2020

Venezuela: On 19 March US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo issued a statement expressing concern about five US nationals and one US resident, employees of Citgo, the US-owned subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-run oil company Pdvsa, who are currently detained at the ‘Helicoide’ prison in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. In a statement Pompeo says that with the Venezuelan administration led by Nicolás Maduro “now acknowledging that Covid-19 cases are appearing in Venezuela, we are extremely concerned about the risk” for the US nationals. According to the statement these “wrongfully detained men all have weakened immune systems due to cumulative health problems and face a grave health risk if they become infected”. It also notes that 18 judicial hearings on their case have been cancelled, adding that the men “have already spent more than two years in jail without an ounce of evidence being brought against them; it is time to release them on humanitarian grounds”.

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