U.S. demands visits with jailed executives

CARACAS, Venezuela — U.S. diplomats are demanding that Venezuela give them immediate access to jailed oil executives who hold American passports.

The State Department said in a statement Friday that the U.S. Embassy in Caracas made the request to the government under international law.

It follows this week’s arrest of six high-ranking executives from Citgo, a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA. Venezuela accuses them of embezzlement stemming from a $4 billion deal to refinance bonds.

Five of the six Venezuelan executives have dual U.S. citizenship.

Oil-rich Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, yet low crude prices plunged the country into financial crisis.

The international scuffle could further strain relations between the Trump administration and Venezuela as socialist President Nicolas Maduro tries to refinance billions in foreign debt amid U.S. sanctions.

In a televised address Wednesday, Maduro said that he had ordered the Citgo inves-

tigation, but that he only learned from the U.S. Embassy earlier in the day of the men’s dual citizenship.

“They are Venezuelans and they will be judged as corrupt thieves and traitors of their country,” Maduro said.

He also named as Citgo’s new president Asdrubal Chavez, a former oil minister and a cousin of the late President Hugo Chavez.

Earlier Wednesday, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said the purported embezzlement scheme went beyond corruption, calling it “sabotage” and “espionage.”

Rodriguez said the men have deprived the country of money that “Venezuela needs to buy medicine and food.” He said they will “pay in Venezuela’s justice system.”

Officials this year have arrested roughly 60 people related to alleged corruption involving PDVSA, including many senior managers of the state-run firm and its subsidiaries in Venezuela and the United States.

Citgo runs three refineries in Illinois, Texas and Louisiana.