US oil executives held in Venezuela hope to be released

A trial of six American oil executives imprisoned in Venezuela for more than two reconvened on Tuesday.

The trial began last Thursday and there's some speculation the men may be released, or put under house arrest, following former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's meeting with President Nicolas Maduro to discuss the case last month.

Jesus Alejandro Loreto, lawyer of Tomeu Vadell, spoke to the Associated Press before entering the court.

"The expectation we have can only be what is in accordance with the law, and that would mean that, as a consequence, today, apart from freedom, the case to be dismissed," Loreto said.

The men, named as Tomeu Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cardenas and Jose Pereira, worked as executives at the Houston-based CITGO.

Just before Thanksgiving in 2017, they were lured to Caracas for a meeting at the headquarters of CITGO's parent, state-run oil giant PDVSA, when masked security agents stormed a boardroom and hauled them away.

The men are being held at the Helicoide jail in Caracas awaiting trial on corruption charges stemming from a plan to refinance some 4 billion US dollars in CITGO bonds by offering a 50% stake in the company as collateral.

But many believe the men, five of whom are naturalized U.S. citizens and the other a legal resident, are being held as political bargaining chips as relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have deteriorated.