Houston’s Citgo 6 honored by Mayor Sylvester Turner

Outgoing Mayor Sylvester Turner honored six Citgo executives Wednesday who were held prisoner in Venezuela for over five years, issuing a proclamation that recognized their resilience, determination and faith throughout their ordeal.

The “Citgo 6” are made up of six executives from petroleum company Citgo, which is based in Houston. In 2017, the executives were told they were traveling to Venezuela for a budget meeting with PDVSA, a Venezuelan oil company that is the parent company of Citgo.

The executives were met by masked men with rifles who detained them and accused them of selling $4 billion in Citgo bonds for personal gain.

The kidnappers released the first executive, Gustavo Cárdenas, in March 2022 as tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela rose with the breakout of the war in Ukraine and a search began for new fuel supplies.

The captors released the last of the hostages – Tomeu Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo and Jose Pereira – in October 2022 following a prisoner swap. President Joe Biden’s administration negotiated the release of the remaining five members, and in return Venezuela secured the freedom of two of President Nicolás Maduro’s family members, who were being held on drug smuggling charges.

“The fact that you’re here at City Hall today speaks volumes,” Turner told the former hostages Wednesday.

Only four of the six of the Citgo executives, Joze Luis Zambrano, Toledo, Pereira and Cardenas, and their family members were present for the proclamation reading Wednesday.

Cristina Vadell, Tomeu Vadell’s daughter, showed up to represent her parents.

Also in attendance was Sofia Adrogue, who represented the executives for free as they fought for their release. She wrote in a message to a reporter that she was honored to advocate for the executives, and that their survival was a testament to their determination, conviction and faith. 

Ardogue said the executives became “political pawns” who got “caught in the morass of a geopolitical conspiracy.” Members of Congress, the state department, the president’s envoy for hostage affairs and officials from the White House were all engaged with the campaign to help release them, she said.

The two prisons the hostages were held in, she said, are among the two worst in Venezuela.

After Turner read the proclamation that declared Dec. 19 the Citgo 6 Day, a bleary eyed Pereira got one word out. 

The proclamation was supposed to be done on the 19th, but was moved to Wednesday due to scheduling.

Toledo called the proclamation an honor. Both he and Jose Luis Zambrano were grateful to be able to say thank you to those who supported them through the ordeal.

Houston’s business community is international, said Christopher Olson, the city’s director for trade and international affairs. The proclamation for the Citgo 6, to him, was about honoring those who have represented the city’s business community through hardship.

“Our companies in Houston work in hard places, but should not be subjected to this kind of treatment when you’re doing just the conduct of international business,” Olson said. 

As she held a copy of the proclamation outside Turner’s office Wednesday, Cristina Vadell called her father her hero.

“He, every day, fought for his freedom, and every day he had faith,” she said. “And what kept us going was love.”

She hoped that others who saw her father and his colleagues make their way out of the situation were able to find hope, and that decision makers were able to find solutions.

After his release, Toledo said he entered a new life. He didn’t know if he was going to come back, he told the Chronicle.

“This is like living a dream,” he said, adding that Wednesday was about fulfilling that dream.

His time in captivity changed his purpose. Toledo said he’s dedicating more of his time to find solutions to hostage diplomacy, which he calls a crime committed with normal citizens.

“They’re playing with peoples’ lives,” he said.