Opposition leader Juan Guaido continued his tour of Washington, D.C. today, meeting with members of Congress, Trump’s cabinet, and the Organization of American States (OAS).
Speaking before reporters, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that legislators were “thrilled” to see Guaido at the State of the Union address earlier this week, and introduced him as the man “who we consider to be the president of Venezuela”. Pelosi said that Maduro’s regime was “worse” than Chavez’s, and thanked Guaido for his “courage… and leadership”.
Below, a clip of Pelosi’s statements:
Below, images of the Pompeo-Guaido meeting:
Guaido also met with Luis Almagro, the head of the OAS. Below are two clips of their meeting:
Regime Detains Citgo Officials, Again
The Associated Press (AP) reported today that the Maduro regime has “rounded up” six oil executives from Citgo, a US-based subsidiary of the PDVSA state-run oil firm. The six executives are American citizens.
The news broke after the relatives of some of the executives–all of whom were in house arrest–alerted the media. According to AP:
Alirio Zambrano said early Thursday that the executives of Houston-based Citgo were abruptly taken from their homes last night by the SEBIN intelligence police. Zambrano, the brother of two of the six detained men, said their current whereabouts are unknown.
“We demand to know they are safe but more importantly their freedom!” Zambrano said on social media, adding that he was very worried about the detainees.
The six executives were first arrested in Venezuela after they were “lured” to Caracas to attend a PDVSA meeting. They stand accused of corruption-related charges. The AP writes:
But many believe the men, five of whom are naturalized U.S. citizens and the other a legal resident, are being held as political bargaining chips as relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have deteriorated. They cite as evidence of irregularities the decisions by Venezuelan Judge Rosvelin Gil to postpone 15 straight times a preliminary hearing.
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