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Free The Zambranos, Americans held in Venezuela | Pod Hostage Diplomacy
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American citizens and brothers from Texas, Alirio Jose Zambrano and Jose Luis Zambrano have been wrongfully imprisoned in Venezuela for over 4 years now. They both work for US oil company, Citgo and were arrested in Caracas in November 2017 together with four of their American colleagues. Collectively, they are known as the Citgo 6.
The US government has publicly stated that the Citgo 6 are unlawfully detained. Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and current US Secretary of State Antony Blinken have both called for their unconditional release. Their families believe they are being held as bargaining chips to extract concessions from the United States. This would be hostage diplomacy.
On this episode, we have the honour of speaking to Alirio Jose Zambrano’s daughter, Alexandra Zambrano Forseth. She talks about what happened to her father and uncle as well as recent developments including one of the Citgo 6 members having a heart attack and the US Special Envoy For Hostage Affairs, Roger Carstens visiting the Citgo 6 in prison in Venezuela. She also talks about her father and uncle’s medical conditions, the toll this has taken on her family, what the US government, Congress and President Biden should be doing better to bring the Citgo 6 home as well as how journalists and the American public can help.
If you prefer, you can watch the video version of this interview on YouTube.
For more information on Alirio Jose Zambrano and Jose Luis Zambrano, please check out the following:
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Chapters
1. Intro (00:00:00)
2. Who are the Zambranos? (00:00:48)
3. What happened to Alirio Jose and Jose Luis? (00:04:24)
4. Alirio Jose and Jose Luis Zambrano’s backgrounds (00:14:56)
5. Conditions of the prison the Citgo 6 are currently being held in (00:30:16)
6. Health issues requiring medical care (00:33:39)
7. How Alexandra and her family have been coping these last 4 years (00:38:13)
8. Approach to campaigning and advocacy (00:41:16)
9. What should the US government do better? (00:48:09)
10. What should US President Biden do better? (00:52:26)
11. What can journalists do better to help? (00:55:16)
12. What can members of the public do to help? (01:00:34)
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