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Group of Executives Lured Into Traveling to Caracas in 2017; CNN Investigation: "Citgo Six" Held on Trumped-Up Charges; Thieves Stole Around $20,000 Worth of Apple Products; Smash and Grab Thrift on the Rise in California. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 26, 2021 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:30:00]

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN NEWSROOM: Welcome to CNN News from everyone. I am Isa Soares. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour. Concern is growing over a new Coronavirus variant that researchers fear can evade immunity and maybe more transmissible.

The variant was first detected in South Africa. And then in the last half hour, Israel has reported its first case of this variant. Now all of this is prompting the UK to suspend flights from six African countries, adding them to its travel read list.

Germany and Italy are now taking similar measures. And the EU Commission is set to propose all member states do the same of course, we'll continue to bring you all the developments across the day, right here on CNN.

Now five Americans and a U.S. resident have now been detained for four years in Venezuela convicted of corruption in a closed door trial. All were executives at CITGO, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA.

But I see an investigation as established that the men known as a CITGO Six will you're into going to Venezuela and then tried on trumped up charges. Here's my report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES (voice over): Calm and clings to a photo of her husband Jorge Toledo.

CARMEN TOLEDO, WIFE OF DETAINED CITGO EXECUTIVE JORGE TOLEDO: This was the last picture I took of him.

SOARES (voice over): The same way she hands on to his every word. This voicemail, the very first time the world is hearing from him.

JORGE TOLEDO: I was allowed to make a phone call, a friend ceded his time and so I wanted to talk to you a little bit.

SOARES (voice over): Since he left on a business trip to Venezuela, yet to return.

TOLEDO: After four years, I think that yes that the U.S. government has failed - pass.

SOARES (voice over): Jorge Toledo and his colleagues left Houston on November 19, 2017. Call to a meeting Caracas by CITGO's parent company PDVSA. As they gather in a conference room, Venezuela's feared military intelligence sweep in and arrest the five Americans and a U.S. resident.

General Manuel Christopher Figueira was a senior intelligence officer very close to President Nicolas Maduro, until he turned on him and fled to the United States. He says the CITGO Six was set up.

[04:35:00]

CHRISTOPHER FIGUEIRA, FORMER HEAD OF VENEZUELAN INTELLIGENCE: It was a well prepared trap to arrest them. There was no arrest warrant.

SOARES (voice over): Initially, the six were held at a prison controlled by the agency figure that was part of. Now in the United States he tells us he takes responsibility for his actions.

FIGUEIRA: I feel responsible not just with them, but because I was part of that nefarious structure that today is destroying our country.

SOARES (on camera): Their families and lawyers tell us they have been kept in overcrowded cells, no windows and in the most unsanitary conditions, they say they've had to buy everything from food to water, toothpaste to even toilet paper. Have a listen to what Toledo asked for just a few weeks ago.

TOLEDO: For the weekend we will need a bar of soap to shower.

SOARES (voice over): Early this year, the CITGO Six will move to house arrest, only to be thrown back in prison in October hours after a Maduro ally was extradited to the United States. Throughout President Nicolas Maduro has accused them of theft and embezzlement of taking kickbacks from an illicit debt deal.

NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT: A few days ago as head of state, I requested an urgent investigation given the serious claims that I was made aware of, of embezzlement of our company CITGO of a blatant and massive robbery at CITGO.

SOARES (voice over): The main accusations against the six that they had tried to renegotiate the CITGO debt without consulting with PDVSA or Maduro, the military officer behind their arrest sitting in court, the Venezuelan authorities had received information from its intelligence sources in the U.S., but offered no proof.

CNN obtained documents showing that the Board of CITGO's parent company PDVSA explicitly authorized negotiations. In addition, look closely, only one of the six Jose Pereira was part of the conversations the deal by the way, never went ahead. And the company that was mediating the refinancing move Mangore Sari - says no money was ever exchange. Still, there were convicted. The arrest of the CITGO Six took place after protesters began pouring onto the streets in 2017.

Venezuela's once booming oil industry was on its knees, the country under a mountain of debt. And sanctions imposed by President Trump crippled PDVSA's ability to move profits from CITGO back into Venezuela. As the flow of cash dried up, the regime's blame and fear strategy kicked in.

TAREK WILLIAM SAAB, VENEZUELAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: They're saying this is all part of the internal struggle. What internal struggle? This is corruption, corruption of the most rotten kind.

SOARES (voice over): Former Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez run PDVSA for a decade on the Charisse.

RAFAEL RAMIREZ, FORMER VENEZUELAN OIL MINISTER: What he cares about, is being in control.

SOARES (voice over): Once an ally he became a threat to Maduro's rise to power and a potential challenger to the presidency when their leader and mentor Hugo Chavez died suddenly in 2013. He fled into exile when he received word Maduro wanted to arrest him on corruption charges, charges he denies.

RAMIREZ: The arrest order and the way they were detained is an instruction by Maduro to spread terror to generate fear.

SOARES (on camera): So they were set up?

RAMIREZ: Yes, of course this spread fear throughout PDVSA, throughout the country, a feeling of fear and terror with regards to the security forces started to grow around the country.

SOARES (voice over): A fear that only increase with PDVSA employees, 15 arrested since 2017 according to Venezuelan NGO photo finale.

BILL RICHARDSON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: It seems that they have been used as you know as bargaining chips.

SOARES (voice over): Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Bill Richardson is navigating this minefield in an effort when the freedom of the CITGO Six. He tells me what he believes Maduro's intentions are.

RICHARDSON: They don't want any further sanctions. They want sanctions lifted. But you know, the relationship has been so poor in the last four to eight years, that I'm the one that's talking to the Venezuelans, the U.S. government doesn't talk to them.

SOARES (voice over): Since he took office, President Biden has said little on Venezuela, its policy some say is in existence, a very different approach to former President Trump. For Carlos Anez and the families of the other five in Venezuela, the fight for justice has been lonely with silence they say from the U.S. government.

CARLOS ANEZ, SON OF DETAINED CITGO EXECUTIVE JORGE TOLEDO: I always apologize to my - to my dad for you know not having delivered is how I feel. I feel like I haven't delivered until he's home. And if he's not home, then I'm not applying the right kind of pressure or I'm not getting my mission accomplished.

SOARES (voice over): A battle that will continue as long as CITGO Six is seen as a valuable bargaining chip for a regime that has few options left.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:40:00]

SOARES: Thank you to Carlos Anez and the other CITGO families for taking time to speak to me over the past year. Now in response to CNN, the U.S. State Department said it continues to seek the unconditional release of the CITGO 6 and urges Maduro to "allow them to return to their families in the United States", the story of course, I will stay on top of.

Now a curfew, a curfew is now in effect in the Solomon Islands after the third day of anti government rallies, rallies in the capital and Honiara. This is what parts of the city look like after a burning and looting spree earlier this week.

Police say some of the latest demonstrations were held outside the Prime Minister's residence. Protesters are calling on him to step down as the anger balls over a long list of political issues, including his government's relationship with China. Blake Essig joins us from Tokyo. And Blake, what is the latest here, is the prime minister buffering and buckling on the pressure here?

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's unlikely that the prime minister will but in an effort to regain the peace and stability in the country, a nightly curfew, as you mentioned has been put into place. And police are trying to appeal to protesters by asking them to make the right choice and refrain from looting and burning valuable infrastructure.

But so far, the protests show no signs of slowing down as the people continue to take to the streets demanding the resignation of the country's prime minister. Today local police say that protesters gathered at the prime minister's residence and as a precaution, police dispatched fire trucks.

Earlier this week a two to 3000 protesters started gathering with some setting fire to buildings in stealing from stores of this all started on Wednesday. His anger spilled over about several domestic issues including unrealized infrastructure promises and the prime minister's lack of a response to a citizen petition filed months ago, which included demands for the government to respect the rights of self determination of the people and limit ties to China.

Now China has publicly expressed concern specifically regarding attacks over Chinese citizens and their businesses. A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that all attempts to disrupt the normal development of relations between China and the Solomon Islands are just futile.

Now because of the violent protests, the prime minister imposed a 36 hour lockdown and called on Australia to deploy police and defense personnel, the lockdown is now easing but a nightly curfew has been put into place indefinitely starting at 7 p.m. until 6 a.m.

The police commissioner says that anyone see moving around " will be dealt with". And because of the ongoing unrest of the Solomon Islands government has advised all public servants in the capitol to stay home and make sure that they have enough food until peace and stability can be restored. Isa?

SOARES: Blake Essig for us there. Thanks very much. Bye. Now tens of thousands of protests took to the streets of Sudan Thursday to condemn Sunday's deal struck between the recently reinstated Prime Minister and the nation's military leader.

Now the agreement says Abdallah Hamdok will lead a transitional government of technocrats and will share power with the military. Prime Minister Hamdok was deposed in a cue just one month ago. Women and their allies around the world marched against gender based violence on Thursday but in some places those demonstrations turned into clashes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES (voice over): As you can see the Turkish riot police fired tear gas to break up the rally in Istanbul Taksim Square crowds marking International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women.

This - was about five months after Turkey exited a global treaty meant to protect them, the Turkish government saying local laws were enough. Meanwhile, police in Mexico also scuffling with demonstrators and it's not exactly clear why, but lots of damage can be seen along the path.

According to Amnesty International 10 women and girls are killed daily in the Mexican Capitol. And in La Paz Bolivia, protesters threw paint at a church, the outrage of - sides. That's the killing of women and girls on account of their gender. Bolivia has one of the South America's highest femicide rates.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Now the Afghan girl who captured hearts everywhere after appearing on the cover of National Geographic in 1985, probably remember, has found refuge as an adult in Italy.

This striking portrait of a 12 year old orphan with piercing green eyes and a suspicious glare came to symbolize displaced people in Afghanistan. It was a huge sensation behind entity wasn't known until many years later.

Now in her late 40s Sharbat Gula has been granted refugee status in Italy. According to the Prime Minister's Office, she appealed for help after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August.

Coming up right here on CNN Newsroom smashing grad feed strike again, their latest target plus what police are doing to catch them, that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:00]

SOARES: Now brazen smash and grab thieves have struck again in California groups of flashbulbs burglarized several stores in the Los Angeles area, making off with tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. CNN's Camila Bernal has the latest.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Investigators in a number of police departments here in California are going over hours and hours of surveillance video trying to figure out exactly who is responsible for these crimes.

Here in Santa Rosa we know at least four people were able to get into this small in the middle of the day with shoppers and employees around and they were able to come out with about $20,000 worth of Apple products and the Santa Rosa Police Department even saying that these are teenagers ages 14 to 18.

So it is of course a concerning situation here and in Southern California where a number of these incidents are also being investigated, including one at a Nordstrom where a security guard was pepper sprayed and at least five people were able to get away with a number of expensive purses.

LAPD says they are increasing patrols. And it's a similar situation here in the Bay Area. I've seen the extra police officers in San Francisco outside of these luxury stores.

But in some cases, it's already too late because we've seen this happening at the Louis Vuitton store at the Nordstrom at the Bloomingdale's at Burberry and even pharmacies like Walgreens, the chief of police here in San Francisco saying that he will work on this that he is even promising arrest.

But the thing is that it then gets handed off to the district attorney. He is a controversial figure in San Francisco. He has vowed to hold people accountable. But also said that the responsibility falls in the hands of the judges and whether or not a judge will keep these people responsible in jail.

So it seems like everybody's sort of passing on the blame and the responsibility and in the meantime we continue to see more and more of these incidents, Camila Bernal CNN, Santa Rosa, California.

[04:50:00]

SOARES: Thank you very much Camila. Well, CNN Newsroom continues after the short break, just stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOARES: If you're just joining us, let me bring you up today with our breaking news stories through the wind covering fact in the last 15 minutes or so the worrying Coronavirus variant that has been discovered in South Africa.

Now Israel has recorded its first case of the new strain and that's prompted it to place travel restrictions are set on seven African countries. Now travelers from those same countries are now banned from entering Singapore as well. And that follows similar announcement from the UK, Germany and Italy suspending flights from the region. We're looking at Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa.

The EU Commission is set to propose all member states do the same. President Ursula ven der Leyen, she tweeted this about 15 minutes or so ago, the EU Commission will propose, in close coordination with member states to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the Southern African region due to the variant of concern B.1.1.529.

[04:55:00]

SOARES: Now the new variant discovered in South Africa was markedly different because it carries - David McKenzie was saying at the top of the hour, an unusual large number of mutations and researchers fear it can evade immunity and maybe more transmissible, hence why we're seeing reaction from Europe and elsewhere.

Now, the rising cases and the new variant are rattling stock markets right around the world this hour. I want to show you the picture here in Europe. Markets open about an hour ago, if we stay on that FTSE down it's gone down quite a bit about a percent just over a percent since I last told you about 45 minutes ago, FTSE down to over two and a half percent.

Same picture with XETRA DAX in Germany and the PARIS CAC - falling even further at three and three tenths of a percent, so not a great picture to end the week here in Europe.

If I show you U.S. markets, they're expected to open lower as well, when trading begins in a few hours. And you can see read hours right across the board the Dow Futures probably seen that potentially the steepest losses two and two tenths of a percent when stocks do open.

And in Asia further steeper losses virtually right across the board. Not as steep perhaps as the rest. But it gives you an idea the fears. If we look at some of the biggest fallers, Ryanair down six and six over 6 percent, Lufthansa as well down quite a bit 11 percent, EasyJet down 11, just over 11 percent almost 12 percent.

And IAG down just over almost close to 11 percent. Concerns, of course about the impact this new variant may have on the economy and the airline industry. That's it from me. I am Isa Soares, "Early Start" with Christine Romans is next.

You'll have much more of course on the new COVID variant discovered in South Africa. Do stay right here with CNN. Have a wonderful weekend. Bye, bye.

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