There’s a smile that comes to Alexandra Forseth’s face when you ask her about her dad, Alirio Jose Zambrano. It will soon be five years since they last saw one another, but when she talks about him, it’s the little things she brings up — like the furniture from Ikea.
“Anyone [who] knows my dad, it’s like you can’t find anyone more annoying about following the rules,” she says. “He’s an engineer to the T, and it’s just like, oh my gosh. He’s the guy that you get the Ikea set and it’s like, you better not freaking start until all the pieces are counted.”
It’s part of the reason why practically nothing about his situation makes sense to her. Not his arrest in Venezuela in 2017. Not the “express” investigation that lasted 24 hours. And certainly not his conviction at trial. The Venezuelan authorities say Zambrano, along with five other employees of the Houston-based energy giant Citgo, are guilty of corruption. Forseth, her family and the U.S. government say Zambrano, and the rest of the so-called “Citgo 6,” were wrongfully detained.
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