Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Success isn't accidental. It's the story you rewrite the moment you stop living by the script others handed you. Everything changes. I'm Ras Patel and on the Ras Patel show, we go past the polished Personas and into the moments that shape us. We explore identity, reinvention, culture, courage, and the unscripted conversations that reveal how people rise, rebuild and rediscover themselves. These aren't interviews, they're turning points. The kind that shift perspective and sometimes an entire path. When life reshapes you, when clarity breaks through, when boundaries shift, that's where the real journey begins. The Raz Patel Show. Story rewritten. Voices awakened. Journeys redefined.
Welcome to the Raz Patel show, where today we bring you one of the most remarkable stories of leadership, resilience and the unbreakable human spirit. What happens when a top tier global executive at the pinnacle of his career is is suddenly stripped of his freedom and held captive for nearly five years?
My guest today is Jose Angel Pereira Ramirek, a former CEO of Citgo Petroleum whose life was forever changed when he became one of the infamous Citgo Sikhs, wrongfully detained in Venezuela for almost five years. But Jose didn't just survive, he transformed that ordeal into a life dedicated to helping others build resilient leadership and reclaim purpose and in their own lives. He's a five time Amazon best selling author, world renowned resilience coach, humanitarian, and he is here with us today. Jose, welcome to the show.
Today we begin at the beginning not just of your ordeal, but of the leadership mindset that helped you endure it.
Many leaders feel trapped by circumstances outside their control. Whether it's geopolitics, career setbacks or personal crises.
This segment explores how true resilience is forged not by comfort, but by confronting impossibility with clarity, faith and discipline. My guest today is Jose Angel Pereira Rumarek, a former CEO of Citgo Petroleum whose life was forever changed when he became one of the infamous Citgo Sikhs, wrongfully detained in Venezuela for almost five years.
Jose, thank you for coming on to the Rasputin Tell Show. It's a pleasure and an honor to have you.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Thank you, Raph, for having me. Thank you for having me here.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Jose, as you are a dear friend and I'm. It's a blessing to have you here and many viewers, they already know you. But I know you as this gentle man behind this resilient, resilient, honorable man. So I want first people to get to know who you were before this resilient man, what happened. So let's Take you all the way back for before we start with your captivity days. Just to address what happened before the captivity. Who were you like and what were you like, Jose?
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Well, that's a great question.
Let me introduce me back all the way when I was a kid because I grew up in Venezuela. I'm Venezuelan born but. But I grew up in a place that was worth the booming all the oil and gas production in Venezuela. My dad, that also was an oil and gas worker, he was one of the pioneers of the Venezuelan oil industry as Venezuelan. So he was appointed to come here to the US in the 70s to continue his oil and gas engineering degree here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So I came here to the US when I was five years.
So I grew up part time here. Then I came back to Venezuela when I was 12 and I continued there until I got graduated. And when I got graduated I was 21 years. I started my, my career in the oil and gas. So I was 21 years, 1985. So you can take my time.
So I started in the antecessor of what they spent as a national company when I was 21. And I did my career all the way along all the corporate ladder until in 2012 I was transferred to here to the US I live in Houston.
And here's the US based company that belongs to PD Beza is located here and it's very well known here in the US that is Citigo Petroleum. Citigo Petroleum is the sixth largest refinery here in the US has more than 6,000 gas stations. I continued my career and in 2017 I became the CEO of the company.
So that was kind of my career during 35 years until I got to become the CEO of that company.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: So what happened, Jose? How did you become captive?
That's important element right there. What happened?
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, my story is very, very tied to what's going on today with the capturing of Nicolas Maduro on January 3, because that happened 2017. Your audience go back, that was the first Trump administration that Trump was having a lot of issues with Nicolas Maduro. So this thing comes from that time and Trump was trying to really throw out these guys and look how that movie finished.
So that was during that time, all these things going between Venezuela and the US and, and I was in the middle of that being the CEO of the company that belonged to the Venezuelan government.
So I was kind of, you know, didn't like what was going on. And I talked with my wife and asked her that, you know, that I was really thinking to get Retired by the time I had 35 years in the company.
And that was my final decision, getting retired.
So I talked with my boss back and forth while he approved my retirement. But he asked me to stay four months to the transition process.
Never happened. Never happened because that happened during the Thanksgiving of 2017.
I was called to go to make a last minute presentation. Was my last presentation before getting retired.
So I flew to Caracas. I do the presentation and in the middle of the presentation, we were captured in front of 1000 people and we were accused to be American spy. And because we became the victims of the geopolitical thing between the Venezuela and the us me and my five vice president. And there's where we became the hostess of Venezuela. We became the sitgo6. That's how the press the name, because we were six guys and we became the sitgo6. So anybody that's hearing this, you Google seed, go6 and you will find the story.
And well, that was the beginning of my new journey of my next five years being captured in Venezuela, right?
[00:07:29] Speaker A: And a journey that one should never have to deal with or go through. So what was your mind like in that detention? How did you maintain your mental and spiritual clarity while you were there for so many years?
[00:07:45] Speaker B: You know, this is a kind of complex answer because it was not only one thing. We went through several phases. My first year we were separated as six and I was put in a solitary confinement in a place that they called a submarine.
So that place became very famous because today is in the International Penal Court. It's one of the biggest torture dungeons of Latin America. So we were placed there during one year, you know, solitary confinement. And that was a hard time. We were like living in the hell.
How I survived, honestly today I only can say that was because of God and my family.
I cannot imagine how we could survive. But we did it. We did it.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: You know, it's such an emotional turmoil, Jose, because you at one second you're the CEO, respected, then all of a sudden you become this labeled villain.
How do you handle such an emotional turmoil?
[00:08:57] Speaker B: You know, that's a good question because I was talking with a friend, you know, and he was telling me when he saw the image of Maduro coming here to the us, captured, going to the court, he was smiling and thumbs up and saying happy New Year to the people. I told him this is something that happened when you're going to a situation like this, you come like, you have like a dissociation.
You are not knowing what really is going with you.
I remember that My first week, I was like in shock, but it was not fear. I was calm.
I didn't know what was going on. So I was like, no, this is going to be soft. I'm going to take care of this. So I was calm. So my first reaction, if somebody could have recorded me, maybe I would be doing the thumbs up and smiling because I sought that the thing I gonna solve it. It's very normal. This is human nature. You know, you don't believe what's going in your life when you're going through this dramatic thing and you think, no, this is gonna something, this is a bad dream, I'm gonna wake up or this is a mistake. This is that. That was what I was thinking until I got that reality check that, oh, this is really serious, this is happening.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: Yeah. As you mentioned, and well put by the way, is disassociated association. So.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Because you can then draw into your inner resources to figure out what strategic opportunities you can provide to yourself in this situation.
Right.
So that's what you did from day to day to keep your hopes alive and your calm demeanor. As you mentioned the word calm, otherwise how can you explain the word calmness in such a hardship that you dealt with?
[00:10:55] Speaker B: But yeah, but believe me, it happens.
I was the first week calm.
I was really calm.
I was really calm today I can explain.
But I was calmed.
I began to have fear was after I began to realize what was really going on. And even that, even that I was more thinking. It was what really was torturing me was not me was thinking about my family, what was happening with my family that was really, really going boom, boom, boom in my head what's happening with my family. Because I lost all the contact with the spirit world.
So now I'm in this place locked during month without not knowing what was the time, what was going out if they left behind.
I didn't know what was going on.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's traumatic, especially where you're uprooted from your family.
It's uncomprehendable what you must have gone through, but you did it. So how did the captivity reshape your definition of leadership? Because you drew into your inner calmness. So it's the years of being a CEO, the years of leadership. You had that experience. Experience. How did that impact you in captivity? Because somehow you survived.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Well, let me tell you something. This is a very good question because by the way, this is part of what I have today as my coaching program. It's called the Unbreakable Leadership coaching program. And let Me tell you, I had a lot of experience of leadership and I went through a lot of situations and I had to deal with a lot of situation. I went through a lot of risk management training and a lot of, you know, Ritza Sexman then a worst case scenario.
But believe me, nobody's prepared for something like this. Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. So today how it reshaped my thought about leadership. That is what today I explained to the people that when you are going to something that pushes from your comfort zone, like it happened to me, that goes that everything is, you know, that's shaking around yourself and the floor is moving.
There's where you gonna be really tested. There's where you're gonna be really tested. But there is something here, I'm gonna say here that everybody has that. I call it the unbreakable spirit. That's why my coaching program is called the unbreakable leadership coaching program. Because everybody has the unbreakable spirit inside all of us. We have it because remember, all of us, we are creatures of God.
So we are in a sense creatures create as his image.
So we really can do it.
What we don't know is that we can do it. So when you are tested is where you all that inner force can be unleashed. But you have to believe in yourself. You have to believe in him, in yourself. So in a particular case, Russ, I was not a spiritual guy. First of all, I was not a spiritual guy.
But believe me, it began to come to me, all those things thinking that today for me, it's the Holy Spirit that came to me because I begin to think about this.
And the turning point for me was that around 10 months, after one day they opened the door and they asked me to dress up to go to a visit.
And when they put me in a room and when they opened the door, it was my wife. So my wife took the risk to go to visit me.
I was happy and scared. Happy because I saw her, but very scared because I didn't know if they could capture her.
She told me that she gave me. Yeah.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: And I hold that thought because I want to talk about that in your next segment. We'll be right back. Up next, we put your experience into the context of today's geopolitical tensions and explore what the world should understand about hostage diplomacy.
Welcome back to the Ras Patel Show. I'm here with Jose Angel Pereira Rumierk. And in the next segment, we're shifting from personal survival to global context, exploring what wrongful detentions like yours mean in today's geopolitical climate, especially between the US And Venezuela, in an era of global unrest, wrongful detentions and hostage diplomacy has have become tools of geopolitical leverage. Most people don't fully understand how political competition can translate into human suffering. Jose's experience gives us a rare firsthand view into this world.
So, Jose, you were mentioning about your wife. Take us in that journey, please.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Well, as I told you, I received.
They opened the door. These guys always did it that way.
Let me say it. You never knew what was going on. Always was surprising.
So they opened the door and said, dress up. You have a visit.
So I dress up, and I went to that room to have a visit. And when they opened the door, I saw my wife.
So I was scared and happy. And I remember that I hugged her and to the ear said, be careful what you say, because this guy record everything, because that was the information.
We were in the counterintelligence military police basement. So all these installations was the counter intelligence police.
So mics all over, cameras all over.
So I was really scared. But she mentioned me that she came in a safe way because I learned that day that the negotiation began to go so bad that the two ambassadors were recalled, so were expelled until today.
The US Embassy in Venezuela, they're opening maybe in a couple of weeks after more than eight years. So that episode marked the expelling of the US Ambassador. So I learned that there was no US Ambassador.
So now we're kind of left behind.
But they were really having hard negotiation behind the scenes.
And that, for me, gave me something that is called the hope, you know, gave me hope. Seeing my wife, that she was okay. She told me, papi, everybody's in the house are okay. She told me what all my kids were doing. She was running a small business. The small business was doing okay. By the way, she took care of me. During the next year, that small business that we had opened as a plan B and retirement plan B, it became my plan B, C, D, E, the only plan.
So now when I came back from that visit, I was full of hope.
Really. Really. That was a real game changer.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: That visit for me and your wife is a blessing. I love her. She's such a sweetheart. And I'm glad you're with her, given your experience, Jose.
And it's a blessing, by the way, that you're with your children and great grandchildren and children and so forth. All of them. It's a blessing. So let's take us to the current situation, right?
With the US Venezuela tensions compared, compared with the climate that led to your detention.
How do you describe that? What are your thoughts around that?
[00:19:02] Speaker B: Well, this thing that happened, Trump always thought that he needed to take this guy out because he was a national threat to the US period. So he really was very clear with that. He tried to do it in the first term, but I'm gonna say it here that maybe the approach was not the right one because he was trying to use these special private forces, contractors didn't work. And this time he decided to do it with a regular army forces. And the spectacular use of the Delta Force is something that is going to be a case study in the future. Okay.
But he really knew that this guy was a real national threat to the US but after years when he came back to office, he found that the situation had become worse because not only he's a national security threat, now he's loading drugs all over the US and there was another actor that was not in the first term, that is Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio is a very well known person about the reality of Venezuela and how he has become a threat. So the combination of this knowledge that he took from the first term, plus the new actor that is Marco Rubio and had more insight about the information was who drive who to take the final decision. That was what really happened. So for me, honestly, it was not a surprise that what was going. What was really a surprise was the way it happened on January 3rd. That was spectacular the way it happened.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And I agree, especially considering what you've been through because you have so many dividing thoughts around it. So it's.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Well, let me tell you, the scene when this guy was going to the trial in New York coming from the armored truck with a handcuff and he was with the armored guy with a mask, that was the same scene he did to us. So when I saw that scene was like looking me in that way, I saw myself there.
That's exactly what this guy did to us. So it was like, this is karma, my friend, this is karma.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: It brings shivers to me. Think like what you put. Because the idea of what you went through, to see it live of the same person that captured you.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
I'm going to say honestly that imagine was so impactful for me that I had to call my therapist and said, daisy, I need to talk with you. Because I was like hyperventilating.
I could not sleep. That image for me was so impactful because it was something that it was vivid, was like repeating the movie.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Yeah. It's traumatic experience that you went through. And to see it, it Brings that PTSD right back.
So not easy. And hats off to you that you can speak about it.
So when it comes to the leaders, right, the key leaders in the region for international relations, what do you think about them overall and what are the implications of these key leaders, whether it's on our side, the US or now, what's going on in the Venezuela? What are your thoughts around it?
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Well, you know, Venezuela is going to become.
People don't realize the impact that Venezuela is going to do in all these new geopolitics because Venezuela has something that it came back again to the top of the mind of the people. But Venezuela is the biggest reservoir of oil in the world, the third biggest reservoir of gas of the world and one of the two or third of the gold and a rare mineral like coal town. So Venezuela has a lot of strategical resources. Is it the top of Latin America? It's the open of Latin America. I remember when I was a kid that it was in the high school and maybe when I began the university I had 18 years for us going to see Queen or Michael Jackson in Venezuela was so normal because we were the entrance of Latino, we were the door where everybody that came to Latin America came. All the headquarters of the big companies were in Caracas, Venezuela. That was Venezuela in the past.
So this is going to be a new start of Venezuela because with this new plan of the Trump administration bringing back all these oil and gas companies, that is a movie that I already have seen in the 90s. We have that. And let me tell you, for some reason of God, I was there when that happened. So I know what's going to happen. I know how it came all this booming of the oil and gas in the 90s. Well, this is going to come back in a way of course that we never expected after the capture of Maduro, you know.
[00:24:37] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure and well put.
So how should governments balance diplomacy, national interest and human rights when it comes to hostages that are involved now?
[00:24:51] Speaker B: Well, this is a very good question because this is something that people don't realize that the hostile diplomacy that you mentioned and for your audience that are not familiar with the term, the hostile diplomacy is something that is more common than the people can imagine that you are a citizen of a country that has problem with another country and you are not a politician. But maybe you're a high stake person. Maybe you can be a CEO of a company or, or you can be, I don't know, a religious leader or something.
Somebody that can have some kind of a way to leverage you. So if you're in a business trip and you're in the wrong place in the wrong moment, they capture you, they put you false charge, they create you a sham trial and they use you as a pawn to leverage you. That's what happened to us. And it's more normal than the people can imagine. Here in the US There are a lot of Americans that have gone and still are going through that in many countries, many countries. There are Americans that are in Iran or in China, in Russia, in many, many countries, many, many countries. Today I'm very connected to this foundation that you know that try to support families and former hosts or people that are going through that ordeal. By the way, I'm going to have an interview next week with, with one of them, one foundation. I'm going to say it here, the James Foley Legacy foundation, because they want to they're doing like a kind of a poll about the people that have come back, how has been rebuilding back their life.
And for them I have been like a beacon because honestly, I have been very active working, putting my voice on that. People that maybe are voiceless or doesn't want to talk. I decided to speak about this.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: Yeah. You're the human story behind all this that's going on right now. You are the.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Yeah, but unfortunately not everybody has the, you know, I respect that. I respect the privacy. There are people that decided to go silent, go quiet, don't talk, they disappear.
That's not me. That's not me.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: Right. You're giving them hope. So, Jose, where can people follow your commentary or advocacy on hostage diplomacy and human rights issues?
[00:27:17] Speaker B: Well, I have a webpage.
I have to think I have my webpage. That is joseconnect.com that is my business webpage where you can find everything related to my speaking, my coaching, my advocacy, my TV show that I'm today a host in laumedia tv, but in the Spanish tv. I have also my podcast where I talk about this. But beside that, I started a nonprofit that is called Angels Helping in Earth.
Webpage is Angelsin Earth.
And you can find me on JoseConnect.com, my webpage or Angels in Earth where there is my advocacy with my nonprofit.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Perfect. Thank you so much, Jose. And we'll be right back. Up next, we pivot into your approach to executive resilience, teaching leaders how to align performance with purpose without losing themselves.
Welcome back to the Ras Patel Show. Now that we've explored your survival and the geopolitical backdrop, let's talk about leadership resilience A skill every executive needs. In 2026 and beyond, the world of leadership has shifted. Uncertainty, rapid change, and high stakes are no longer anomalies. Traditional models of leadership often feel under pressure, while what Jose calls an unbreakable spirit equips leaders to not just survive, but grow through adversity.
Thank you for coming back to the Raz Patel show. And we have Jose Pereira, and it's a blessing to be talking to him. So, Jose, how do you coach C suite? Let's talk about that. Leaders to align performance with purpose under extreme pressure.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Well, this is a good question because I, I decided to start this coaching. Let me tell you, I never did coaching. I was a guy that was in the corporate world. But you know something, I always loved to teach one thing that I was kind of something that I have inside. Even though I was always in the corporate world, I always trying to teach that new people.
I always was trying to do trainings, seminars internally in the company. So I had that, you know, that little spirit inside. But when I came back and as I said, I begin to connect with all these families and they begin to try to have my, you know, my, my experience, how, how I had deal with things because I already had started my speaking career and I, I thought that, okay, Jose, I believe that you can do something with this. So that what I decided was to combine that experience that I had in the corporate world and my survivor experience, and I created this coaching. And this coaching is very particular because I don't do a normal coaching because for me, the first thing that I do with the C suite is I ask the raw question is, how is your life balanced?
How is your life balanced? This is the first thing. I encourage them to revisit how their life is because believe me, it's very common in, in the C suite space.
People you see people successful, but in their life are miserable. And these are unfortunately unspoken challenges that people don't talk about it. So I want them to be honest. And this is the first thing that we do. And let me tell you, for me, it has been wonderful. People that I have found after they had restored their marriage, you know, this is the first thing. Then comes the how is your connection with your peers and your employees?
Because this is another thing that normally the C suite does. They disconnect with the reality because you only are in the top, so you don't have connection with your peers.
How I came to this because this was the only way I could survive.
If we haven't done it during my captivity, I would not Survive.
So we needed to connect because after one year we were put together with my other five colleagues and we were not friends. We were not friends. But we discovered that we have a lot of things in common, that we were long term married and we found that connection and we decided to do a plan to survive.
And when you mirror that to your business, it's exactly the same.
So you're in the business, but you disconnect yourself.
You have to find ways to make the connection with your colleagues, with your peers and with your employees because that's what's going to make you to become successful.
The other thing is be adaptive.
Something that for me was key was having the possibility to be adaptive. Because Russ, our situation changed all day long. One day we were here, tomorrow we were here. We were like this boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And this is exactly what happened in your corporate life today. You know, life today is kind of difficult things, it's chaotic. So a C suite, a CEO have to handle that. And not only him, he has to put all his employees to have that capacity to be adapted. If you find that way for you and your employee, that's going to be a game changer to your company.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Absolutely, absolutely. And it's such a similar path to what I think about my lifestyle coaching is you focus on leadership, but include the lifestyle, include nutrition, include the way you live. So I love that. And which is going back to the leadership aspect, what are your thoughts about the traditional leadership? Because yours and mine align so well with the lifestyle balance.
Why did they fall short in times of crisis?
[00:33:39] Speaker B: Well, the crisis management has to do one of the things is finding the way to keep yourself positive even in the cows. The first thing, how you can be calm and focused, focus under the chaos. And let me tell you why that big focus is so important. Because when you're in the midst of the chaos, if you are not focused, you will not be able to see the things that you can and the things that you can't control.
And why this is so key because how many, many people don't want to control things that they have no clue how to control?
So it's ridiculous trying to control things that are not under your control. So that will drive it to anxiety and burnout.
So when you discover the way, you can, okay, okay, this is under my control. I take care. This is not under my control. It's not that you're not going to take care. You can monitor it, but you will not be trying to influence it.
Let me tell you an example.
How we managed during my captivity, when we were put together after one year, we were six guys, all top executive.
I can tell you, we were a lot of brains.
A lot of brains. And we were trying to in the beginning, trying to influence what our family had to do, to strategically try to.
So we were trying to give instructions to our family in a prison. Come on. So one day we were kind of doing plans and things and that and that. And one day I told my colleagues, stop, stop, we're going to go mad. Let's try to do what we can control, is take care of ourselves.
So that's why we begin to take care of our mental, our physical and our spirit, spiritual health. And we decided to leave the other thing to our family. And it worked because they took care and they brought us back.
So this is something that, again, if you mirror that in your business, focus on the thing that you can control and live to monitor and live that the things unfold and adapt to the situation as they're coming.
[00:35:57] Speaker A: Absolutely. And that calmness is so important, Burton, for executives, as you said, what other emotional and strategic endurance can they adapt before crisis hits?
[00:36:09] Speaker B: Well, another thing that for me is key in all these things is being empathetic. Because this is something that happened when, during the chaos, the leaders kind of lose not only the focus, lose the control of that narrative, of that, that talking with their employee. And that creates all the chaos in the organization. But if you understand what's going on and be honest with your employee, that's why that communication is key in this. Be honest, be honest. Because sometimes the people see the CEO like a superman.
And it's not true. You're not a superman. You're a normal guy that had the blessing that you had, that maybe the knowledge and you're in the CO position, but you're a normal human being.
Russ, during my captivity, I was a Venezuelan political prisoner. Not normal people.
I was with militaries, congressmen, religious leaders, human rights leaders, people, high stake people. And we were all there in a dungeon together.
And you know what? We were normal people, human being that bleed and the blood is red and with the same fears. And I knew their families, so are normal people. So when you take the people outside the suit, they are normal people.
And this is something that a leader has to understand.
You are there because my. You're not the leader, but doesn't make you better than the others. So when you understand that and you really try to be more empathetic with your peers and your employees, that will gain you something that Is called the loyalty.
The people begin to be more loyal to you because the people and be honest, say, hey, I need help.
I don't have the answer. I need your help.
So be humble. Be humble and express gratitude.
There is something that the people don't think about it. Express gratitude.
[00:38:28] Speaker A: Hundred percent right on the money, on the target, Jose. So given all those factors, what do you think is the first step a leader should take today to strengthen their resilience muscle? I mean, we've gone through the whole cycle of what leadership should do. What is the first step for them to think through?
[00:38:49] Speaker B: I believe there is something that people miss to think about. It is a word called faith.
The faith is the start of everything. And believe me that people don't think. This morning I had a meeting with the pastor of my church. He does every Friday, the last Friday, every month, we do a breakfast with all the entrepreneurs of the church. So there is a meeting with the entrepreneurs of the church. And he was saying something that he said, if you are in a business, you have to have God in the center of your life because that will make you that anything that comes comes with the guidance of him.
So, and when you have faith in yourself and faith in a superior entity, that is who is going to guide you.
It's going to become your north.
And when you have that passion to follow it, you combine that passion with your faith, you will become unstoppable.
You will become unstoppable.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: Well said, Jose. Agreed. So up next, we close with how you've turned survival into service, your humanitarian mission and life beyond leadership coaching.
Surviving a crisis is one thing. Using that experience to serve others is what builds legacy. Jose's work with angels, helping in earth and as an advocate for humans rights reflects a mission that transcends personal achievement. Jose, what inspired you to launch your humanitarian efforts supporting trauma survivors and immigrant families?
[00:40:41] Speaker B: Well, let me tell you a story that maybe people, when I tell the story, they blow their mind. You know, during my captivity, at some point after we were put six guys together, we began to pray.
Every night we have like one and a half hour daily prayers and one and a half hour daily Bible reading. And by the way, one of my colleagues, he prays Buddhism. So he was also giving some, talking about the Buddhism, you know, meditation, all this stuff. So we were doing a lot of spiritual things and that drive us to be in reading In a moment there at the end of the night, we were like in peace, really, really feeling the peace. So one night I went to sleep and I was in My bed, sleeping, maybe 3am in the morning.
And I had a dream.
I remember that I had this dream that was this toast dream that you say. This is not a dream. This is really vivid. So in that dream, God came to me and he took me to the future.
And in that dream, I went to a place where I saw installation, where I saw a TV studio.
There was recording there. I saw some classroom people studying. I saw a lot of people going inside. I saw my family working there. And I asked him, what is this?
And he told me, this is your foundation.
And your foundation is going to be called Angels Helping Earth. I'm Jose Angel. And when I wake up, I said, why I had this dream? So it was so vivid, the dream that I decided to take. By that time, I was smuggling a lift with my wife. So I remember I took a paper and a pen and I began to write down what I had dreamed. And I did even, like an org chart of all the things I saw.
And I sent a letter to my wife.
It passed. Well, it was like in the third year, it happened that I stayed two more years. And the day I came back, then my wife told me that she has compiled all those letters that became my book. My book From Hero to Binance comes from those letters. She showed me the letter. She showed me the letter. And she told me that when she received that letter, she thought that I was going crazy.
Yeah, because it was, you know, she said, why you put that letter?
And that kept really coming, popping back to my mind, coming and coming and coming.
And, you know, that things begin to go in that direction. And one day, now, being in my church, my church is a Hispanic church, I begin to work in one of the ministry that I'm helping is a ministry called the Art of Giving, where I begin to collect numbers of food, the people in need, and I begin to get connected to a Spanish community that was really in need.
And I begin to see, because one of my therapists, my therapist that has been treating my ptsd, we begin to have the conversation. And one day I told Daisy, I believe I'm going to have to start this foundation. So it was like God pushing me for that.
And I said, but I don't have no clue how to start a nonprofit. So I began to investigate how to do with a nonprofit. And I found a pastor, that is Pastor Willie Peterson, that has been helping me. He was doing a webinar about how can you start a nonprofit? And I attended. I registered in a webinar. I heard this guy talking about how to do this, that and the fundraiser, blah, blah, blah. And when he finished, I chat with him and said, pastor, I want to have a zoom call with you.
And when we connect in the zoom, I told pastor, I want to work with you, I need your help. And he said, why me?
I told him, because God told me that you're going to be working with me. And he said, oh, if God said it, I have to do it. And he began to work with me and he helped me to create a foundation. And that foundation came alive this December. So we came alive in December. We, we are now in the preparation to the launching of the foundation. The foundation will have four pillars. The first one is trauma recovery. Why trauma so important, Russ? Because one of the big issues now with all these issues with the immigrant here in the US but the Hispanic community normally when come here to the US is because they're escaping of their countries, because they have been going through maybe human trafficking or sexual trafficking or violence, many things. So the people normally when they come here is looking for a better life escaping from that with trauma and nobody takes care of them and they continue their life. And now there's all this issue with immigration, more trauma. So you are creating generational trauma because that trauma will be transferred for their kids and to their grandkids. So the main thing of their foundation is to try to stop that cycle. Giving training, giving advice, giving therapy.
Of course, our vision is to become nationwide. We're going to start here in Houston. But my main vision is try to do this nationwide.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's huge because you've sunned it real well considering that you created this foundation and then you're helping those in crisis that they cannot help themselves. That's huge and commendable. And now you starting with the global work. So how do you in the global aspect, how do you balance the advocacy with leadership coaching?
[00:46:44] Speaker B: Well, I try to do the balance and even for me, this thing has evolving where I didn't expect because after the Maduro thing, I have been getting contact with people that knew my oil and gas background, my experience. Now they're asking me to give them advice.
I begin to speak about how they see the situation. Now it's funny because I'm posting thinking in TikTok and now have millions of view. So I have become like a boomer, talking about the thing that's going in Venezuela. Well, something that I'm going to the flow, what God is driving me to do.
[00:47:28] Speaker A: And you're doing a great job with it. And it's a Great path to be on.
And the fact that you're loving what you do is huge.
And that's why, you know, your faith is helping you to follow through what you want to do.
[00:47:42] Speaker B: Because that comes when you find the passion of what you want to do. I can tell you, Russ, I did 35 years in oil and gas. I'm glad the career I did, I'm very proud the career I did.
But that was not my passion. My passion is what I'm doing today.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: Yeah, because it's giving back to you. And the only way, honestly, like you said, is because you learned leadership through your previous experience. And that's why you can bring that into the current life that you are in.
So when you reflect on your legacy, what do you hope the world remembers most about you?
[00:48:19] Speaker B: Well, for me, my foundation is going to be my legacy. I am vision to have this foundation to be nationwide. I envision my kids and my grandkids working there. I have a episode that happened with my grandkid that I was preparing to go to an event. I had prepared some brochure to begin to showcase the foundation. And he saw me unfolding the brochures and he told me, abuelo, what is that? I said, oh, this is the foundation. I explained what the foundation was and I joking to him said, martin, this is going to be your foundation. When you grow up, you're going to be a leader of this foundation. And he got and he began to cry. You know, he felt the legacy, I was putting the legacy to him. He began to cry. I had to hug him because he felt like in the shoulder.
So that's what I want to do in the future.
[00:49:19] Speaker A: Leave that legacy touches my heart and I'm wishing you all the best in success in that because that's such a inspiring journey to be on. And speaking of inspiring, you have inspired us all in your incredible story today. And I really appreciate the fact that you were on the show on this platform giving us the insight.
So where can people connect with you to learn more or support your humanitarianism mission?
[00:49:49] Speaker B: Well, as I mentioned, the foundation webpages, Angels in Earth. Okay. Angels in that earth. If you go there, you will find all what the foundation is doing. And there is a lot of places you can donate. PayPal, Stripe, you know, and not only physical money, it can be even collaborations because I truly believe in the power of the collaborations.
Anybody that's hearing this wants to contact me because feel that what I'm telling resonate with them. If you want to donate, you can donate. But if you want to collaborate, just call me.
[00:50:30] Speaker A: Yeah, Wonderful. Thank you so much, Jose. With that, thank you for coming on the Raz Patel show. Wishing you all a success.
And, you know, we're friends, so we'll be connecting soon. Thank you.
[00:50:44] Speaker B: Okay, bye. Bye.
All right, if you just want to stay logged in really quick, I'm going to stop the recording. I just need a second for it to up burn. Okay? So I'll give you the thumbs up when you can X out of the call.
Okay.
[00:51:02] Speaker A: Thank you, Jose, for your courage, wisdom, and example of resilience in action. To our viewers, whichever battle you're facing right now, remember this freedom, purpose and impact begin with an unbreakable spirit.
I'm Raz Patel, and this has been the Ras Patel Show. Stay strong, stay purposeless, and we'll see you next time.
