Caracas (AFP) - Venezuelan authorities have detained three DirecTV executives after the US-owned television service's decision to shut operations in the South American country due to US sanctions, their lawyer said Friday.
"I hope there is justice in this country," Carlos Villamizar, vice president of strategy for DirecTV, told reporters before surrendering himself.
Villamizar said he was "very, very surprised," at the warrant issued against him and his former colleagues Hector Rivero and Rodolfo Carrano.
He was accompanied by lawyer Jesus Loreto, who said the other two managers had "voluntarily surrendered" to authorities and were being held at the intelligence service headquarters in Caracas, known as El Helicoide.
Former DirecTV employees expressed solidarity with the trio on social networks, with the hashtag #DIRECTVSomosTodos (We are DirecTV) trending on Twitter.
The arrest warrants were issued almost three weeks after AT&T announced on May 19 its "immediate" withdrawal from the pay TV market in Venezuela, where it offered the DirecTV satellite platform.
Under the terms of its pay TV license granted by President Nicolas Maduro's government, DirectTV was obliged to carry private news network Globovision and PDVSA TV.
Texas-based AT&T said it was forced to close the television operation because US sanctions banned the transmission of Globovision and PDVSA TV, the channel of the Venezuelan state oil company.
The three arrested executives "did not participate in what happened, they did not know what was happening," the lawyer said.
Three days after AT&T's decision to close operations, Venezuela's highest court ordered the seizure of the company's facilities and equipment.
The board of directors at the company that provides the DirecTV service in Venezuela, Galaxy Entertainment, have also been barred from leaving the country.
DirectTV's departure has left two million subscribers in limbo, with soccer fans deprived of the popular Futbol Total program which was broadcast by DirecTV Sports for Latin America.
Under Donald Trump, Washington has been seeking to oust the leftist Maduro and the Venezuelan president, many of his top government allies and PDVSA are all subject to US sanctions.
Three Venezuelan nationals working as sales executives for DirecTV have been arrested by Venezuelan authorities, three weeks after AT&T abruptly pulled its satellite TV business out of the country.
Under terms of a license obtained by Dallas-based AT&T from President Nicolas Maduro’s government, DirecTV is required to carry private news network Globovision and state oil-company-backed network PDVSA TV.
AT&T, however, said U.S. sanctions against Venezuela ban transmission of those two networks.
"I hope there is justice in this country," said Carlos Villamizar, VP of strategy for DirecTV, said in a statement made through his lawyer before surrendering himself.
Villamizar added that he was "very, very surprised," at the warrant issued against him and his former colleagues Hector Rivero and Rodolfo Carrano.
Villamizar’s lawyer said the three executives "did not participate in what happened, they did not know what was happening."
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Al Jazeera is among a number of global news outlets to report on this.
Three days after AT&T's May 19 decision to immediately close operations, Venezuela's highest court ordered the seizure of the company's facilities and equipment.
DirectTV's abrupt exit has left two million Venezuelan pay TV subscribers deprived of the popular Futbol Total programme, which was broadcast by DirecTV Sports for Latin America.
The Trump Administration here in the U.S. is currently trying to oust socialist Maduro through what it calls its “maximum-pressure” political campaign.
AT&T joined other U.S. companies, including General Motors, Kellogg and Kimberly-Clark, that have abandoned Venezuela because of what they say are shrinking sales, government threats and the risk of U.S. sanctions.
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