PARIS: A French citizen who has been detained in Venezuela since late June has been released, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday.
“Camilo Castro is free. I share the relief of his family and thank everyone who worked for his release,” the head of state wrote on the social media platform X.
Castro, a 41-year-old yoga teacher, disappeared on June 26 at the Paraguachon border crossing, which separates Venezuela from Colombia, where he lives.
He had gone to renew his expired Colombian residency visa, his family said in August.
In mid-September, Castro’s mother said she had not received any news from him other than a voice message at the end of July in which he “called for help.”
According to research conducted by his family and Amnesty International, he was being held by the Venezuelan authorities.
Amnesty has denounced what it said was a policy of “enforced disappearances” of opponents and foreign nationals since the electoral authorities declared President Nicolas Maduro winner of a disputed vote in July 2024.
“The Venezuelan authorities appear to be using this practice to justify their narratives about ‘foreign conspiracies’ and as a bargaining chip for use in negotiations with other countries,” it wrote in a report published in July.
Macron: French national held in Venezuela released
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Macron: French national held in Venezuela released
- Camilo Castro, a 41-year-old yoga teacher, disappeared on June 26 at the Paraguachon border crossing
Hungary to release 1.8 million barrels of crude oil from strategic reserves
- Croatia’s JANAF pipeline operator, however, said there was no need for Budapest to tap its reserves
- Hungary and Slovakia have been trying to secure supply since flows were halted on January 27
BUDAPEST: Hungary’s government will release about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil from its strategic reserves after a drone attack on the Druzhba pipeline late last month stopped oil flow, according to a government decree published late on Thursday.
Croatia’s JANAF pipeline operator, however, said there was no need for Budapest to tap its reserves after Hungary’s oil company MOL said on Friday JANAF must allow transit of Russian seaborne oil to Hungary and Slovakia during the Druzhba outage.
“At this moment, a significant quantity of non-Russian crude oil is being transported via JANAF’s pipeline for MOL Group, while three additional tankers carrying non-Russian oil, also for MOL Group, are on their way to the Omisalj Terminal,” JANAF said in a statement.
“There was no need to tap into (their) reserves since oil transport via the JANAF pipeline toward MOL’s refineries is being carried out continuously and without delays.”
Hungary and Slovakia, which have the only remaining refineries in the EU using Russian oil through Druzhba, have been trying to secure supply since flows were halted on January 27 following what Ukraine said was a Russian drone attack that damaged pipeline infrastructure.
Both countries have blamed Ukraine for the delay in restarting the flows for political reasons.
SCRAMBLE FOR CRUDE SUPPLIES
MOL is entitled to priority access to released crude oil reserves, and it will have access to the freed reserves until April 15 and has to return them by August 24, the Hungarian government decree said.
At the end of January, Hungary had enough crude oil and petroleum product reserves to cover 96 days, according to data on the Hungarian Hydrocarbon Stockpiling Association’s website.
As the two countries scramble to ensure supplies, MOL ordered tankers delivering Saudi, Norwegian, Kazakh, Libyan and Russian oil to supply its Hungarian and Slovak refineries and halted diesel deliveries to Ukraine earlier this week.
MOL said that first shipments were expected to arrive at the port of Omisalj in Croatia in early March. After that, it will take a further 5-12 days for the crude oil to reach its refineries.
The Slovak government has also declared an oil emergency situation and has pledged to release 1.825 million barrels of oil following a request from Slovakia’s Slovnaft refinery, which is owned by MOL.
