WELL, GOOD: Ted Cruz Threatens Maduro With ‘Every Lever’ If He Doesn’t Release Six Captive Americans.

GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz met Tuesday with the families of the “CITGO six,” American oil executives held captive in Venezuela, and called for their release.

CITGO is a U.S.-based oil company that is majority-owned by PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro imprisoned CITGO’s former vice president for refining Tomeu Vadell, former vice president for supply Jorge Toledo, former vice president for shared services Jose Luis Zambrano, former Corpus Christi refinery director Alirio Zambrano and former head of public affairs Gustavo Cardenas in November 2017.

“For over a year, they’ve been imprisoned,” Cruz told reporters after the meeting. “[Their families] haven’t spoken to them in nearly a month, as communications have been cut off. They’ve seen their family members drop weight precipitously. They’re kept away from sunlight – often away from human contact, denied basic human rights.”

Socialist hospitality.