Jorge Toledo and the CITGO 6: Arrest, Sentence, and Prisoner Swap

Jorge Toledo is a Venezuelan-American oil executive and one of the CITGO 6, the group of six U.S. citizens and residents lured to Caracas in November 2017, detained by the Venezuelan government, and held for nearly five years on corruption charges the U.S. State Department called politically motivated. Toledo spent 1,775 days in custody before his release on October 1, 2022, in a prisoner swap negotiated by the Biden administration. He has since written a memoir about the experience and advocates for other Americans wrongfully detained abroad.

The Trip to Caracas That Became an Arrest

Less than two months after being promoted to Vice President of Supply and Marketing at CITGO Petroleum, Toledo was summoned to Venezuela for what the executives were told was an emergency business meeting at the headquarters of PDVSA, the state oil company. When he and five colleagues arrived on November 21, 2017, masked security agents detained all six.¹

The group became known as the CITGO 6: Toledo, former CITGO president José Pereira, and vice presidents Gustavo Cárdenas, Tomeu Vadell, José Luis Zambrano, and Alirio Zambrano. Five were U.S. citizens; Pereira was a lawful permanent resident. The Maduro government framed the arrests as part of an anti-corruption sweep. Critics called it a purge to tighten control over the oil sector, which produces roughly 95 percent of Venezuela’s export earnings.² In February 2020, the U.S. State Department formally designated the men as wrongfully detained under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act.³

Nearly Five Years in Custody

Toledo’s 1,775 days were spent across multiple facilities. He and the other executives spent nearly two years in the basement of the DGCIM, Venezuela’s military counterintelligence agency, in crowded, windowless cells. Prison authorities supplied almost nothing. Families delivered food, water, medicine, and basic supplies like soap.⁴

The physical toll was severe. In his first ten months in custody, Toledo’s weight dropped from 176 pounds to roughly 120 pounds, and his head was shaved.⁴ He later described his captivity as “brutal physical and psychological torture” in an environment of “paranoia and silence.”⁵

The men were moved between prison and house arrest three times, and each transfer tracked with U.S.-Venezuela relations. They were released to house arrest in December 2019, then sent back to El Helicoide prison in February 2020 after former President Trump hosted opposition leader Juan Guaidó at the White House. They returned to house arrest in May 2021 as a goodwill gesture to the Biden administration, then back to prison in October 2021 after the U.S. extradited Colombian financier and Maduro ally Alex Saab to Miami on money laundering charges.⁴

The Charges and the Thanksgiving Day Sentence

The executives were accused of corruption and embezzlement tied to a proposal, never actually executed, to refinance about $4 billion in CITGO bonds using a 50 percent stake in the company as collateral.⁶ All six denied wrongdoing. Their lawyers called them political prisoners held without credible evidence.²

A closed-door trial began in August 2020, with weekly hearings inside a downtown Caracas courthouse. Because of the pandemic, sessions took place in a hallway in front of a bank of dormant elevators. News media and rights organizations were barred.⁶ On Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2020, Judge Lorena Cornielles delivered closing arguments and immediately sentenced the men. Toledo and the four other vice presidents each got eight years and ten months. Pereira received 13 years and a $2 million fine.⁷ The State Department called the proceedings a “sham trial without any evidence.”⁸

The Swap That Brought Him Home

Gustavo Cárdenas was freed first, in March 2022. The remaining five, including Toledo, were released on October 1, 2022, in a negotiated prisoner exchange. In return, President Biden commuted the sentences of Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, often called the “narco-nephews” of Maduro’s wife, who were serving U.S. time for conspiring to import cocaine. Two other wrongfully detained Americans, Matthew Heath and Osman Khan, were released as part of the same deal.⁹

The exchange happened on the tarmac in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where two U.S. government planes and two Venezuelan planes met. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens personally boarded the plane carrying the seven Americans to confirm their identities before takeoff.⁹¹⁰¹¹

Life After Release

Toledo’s captivity devastated his family financially. As the household’s only earner, his arrest forced his family to drain their retirement savings and sell their home.¹¹

Since coming home, he has worked as a representative of the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, a grassroots group led by families of wrongfully detained Americans. In July 2023 the campaign launched “#RunWithJorge,” following his training for the Marine Corps Marathon, which he ran on October 29, 2023, alongside Mickey Bergman of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement.¹² He publicly backed the Countering Wrongful Detention Act of 2024, which was enacted on December 23, 2024, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.¹³

In September 2025, Toledo traveled to Rome to reunite with Oreste, an Italian businessman who had been his cellmate in El Helicoide. The two had promised each other during their imprisonment that if they both survived, they would share a meal near the Roman Forum.⁵ On August 12, 2025, Archway Publishing released his memoir, 1,775 Days of Captivity: Survival and Growth, which recounts his detention, the mental and spiritual practices that helped him endure, and the role of his wife Carmen and their family in sustaining him.¹⁴

Where the Broader Case Stands

Two of Toledo’s fellow former detainees have sued their former employer. In May 2024, Alirio and José Luis Zambrano filed suit in state district court in Houston, seeking more than $400 million from CITGO. They allege the company conspired to lure them to Venezuela, supplied confidential documents to Venezuelan military intelligence, and then abandoned them during years of imprisonment. CITGO has called the claims “entirely meritless.” Former detainee Tomeu Vadell filed a separate, similar lawsuit.¹⁵

CITGO itself became the subject of a separate legal battle. A federal court in Delaware oversaw the sale of the company to satisfy nearly $21 billion in claims from unpaid creditors of the Venezuelan government. In late November 2025, Judge Leonard P. Stark approved the sale of PDV Holding, CITGO’s parent, to Amber Energy, with closing expected in 2026 pending regulatory approvals.¹⁶ In January 2026, members of the former CITGO 6 publicly welcomed news that Nicolás Maduro had been removed from power following a U.S. operation that led to his detention and indictment on drug, arms, and conspiracy charges.¹⁷

1
U.S. Embassy in Venezuela. Four Years of Wrongful Detention for the CITGO 6
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BBC News. Venezuela Citgo Bosses Found Guilty of Corruption
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Voice of America. Four Years of Wrongful Detention for CITGO 6
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CNN. CITGO 6 Venezuela Four Years
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Hostage International. My Experience: Rome, Reunion, and Redemption
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PBS NewsHour. 6 U.S. Citgo Executives Convicted and Sentenced to Prison in Venezuela
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NPR. Six U.S. Citgo Executives Convicted and Sentenced in Venezuela
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TIME. CITGO 6 Hostages Venezuela Joe Biden
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CNN. Venezuela Seven Americans Behind the Scenes
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Houston Public Media. Houston-Area Families Reunite After Imprisoned Citgo Executives Freed From Venezuela
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HostageAid. Beyond the Walls of Captivity: A Story of Endurance, Family, and Reinvention
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Bring Our Families Home. Advocacy
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Ripon Advance. Hill Applauds Enactment of Bill Countering Wrongful Detention as Part of 2025 NDAA
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Archway Publishing. 1,775 Days of Captivity: Survival and Growth
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Fox 5 San Diego (AP). Oil Executives Imprisoned Five Years in Venezuela Sue Former Employer Citgo for $400 Million
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Amber Energy. Amber Energy Approved as Acquirer of Citgo
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Fox 8 Live. Members of Citgo 6 Imprisoned by Venezuela Rejoice Over Removal of Nicolas Maduro