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Free Jose Pereira, American held in Venezuela | Pod Hostage Diplomacy
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US permanent resident, Jose Pereira from Texas was former acting President and CEO of CITGO Petroleum. In November 2017 shortly before Thanksgiving, Jose was arrested in Caracas while he was there for a business meeting with five of his other American colleagues. Collectively, they’re known as the CITGO 6. The US government has stated they are unlawfully detained and called for their immediate release.
On this episode, we have the honour of speaking to Jose’s son, John Pereira. John talks to us about what happened to his father, the conditions of his detention, the unfair trial and the significant developments that have taken place in the last year including Jose’s heart attack in prison, a visit to Venezuela by US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens as well as the release of Gustavo Cardenas in March 2022. Gustavo was one of the CITGO 6 and is now thankfully back home in the US with his family.
John also talks to us about how he and family have been coping with this trauma, President Biden’s new Executive Order on Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad as well as what CITGO Petroleum, the US government, journalists and the public can do to help bring Jose Pereira back home to Texas.
If you prefer, you can watch the video version of this interview on YouTube.
For more information on Jose Pereira, please check out the following:
- Free Jose Pereira Twitter account
- Social media hashtag: FreeJosePereira, Citgo6
Get the latest updates on hostage cases we at Pod Hostage Diplomacy are working on including new episodes by subscribing to our fortnightly newsletter, the Hostage Briefing. Subscribe here.
Chapters
1. Intro (00:00:00)
2. Who is Jose Pereira? (00:02:07)
3. What happened to Jose Pereira? (00:04:54)
4. Conditions of Jose’s detention (00:14:08)
5. Unfair trial (00:17:55)
6. Taken back to prison after house arrest (00:21:41)
7. Heart attack in prison (00:26:51)
8. US Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs visit (00:34:02)
9. Gustavo Cardenas release (00:36:17)
10. More Americans recently detained in Venezuela (00:38:44)
11. Last time John spoke to his father (00:40:22)
12. How John and family are coping with this trauma (00:43:10)
13. What should CITGO be doing better? (00:50:44)
14. What should the US government be doing better? (00:54:44)
15. President Biden’s new Executive Order (01:00:12)
16. No resolution for CITGO 6 in Congress (01:02:15)
17. Bring Our Families Home campaign (01:04:35)
18. What can journalists do to help? (01:08:41)
19. What can the public do to help? (01:11:03)
20. John’s advice for other hostage families (01:13:53)
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