And scandal with the smell of crude oil splashes to madurismo. The Minister of Petroleum, Tareck El-Aissamiresigned this Monday as a result of the wave of investigations and arrests carried out in recent hours by the National Anti-Corruption Police and the Attorney General’s Office, and which is related to crimes in the exporting heart of Venezuela: the state PDVSA. El Aissami, a specialist in criminology, is not a minor name in the current power scheme since 2013. He has served as a delegate in the Popular Power, and has held the vice-presidency of the country, in addition to different ministries.
“I have made the decision to present my resignation as Minister of Petroleum, with the purpose of fully supporting, accompanying and backing this process,” he said about the situation in PDVSA that has dragged him down. “In my condition revolutionary militantI place myself at the disposal of the leadership of the PSUV (Government party) to support this crusade that the president has undertaken Nicolas Maduro against the anti-values that we are obliged to fight, even with our lives”.
Before stepping aside, Attorney General Tarek William Saab had reported on the arrests Colonel Antonio Pérez Suárez, Vice President of Commerce and Quality Supply of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), as well as Joselit Ramirez, National Superintendent of Cryptoactives (Sunacrip), nothing less than the person in charge of managing funds from the oil industry through operations with cryptocurrencies. That dependency had been created, among other reasons, to evade economic sanctions from the United States.
The official newspaper Ultimas Noticias has stated that Ramírez’s arrest is linked to #the disappearance of 3,000 million dollars from the sale of Venezuelan oil”. The portal As it is He recalled that Ramírez and El Aissami have known each other since their years of militancy at the Universidad de Los Andes. The other who belonged to that youth circle and who has been arrested is the deputy and former Minister of University Education Hugbel Roa. Parliamentary immunity is expected to be lifted at a forthcoming session of the National Assembly. The fall of another important official was not ruled out in Caracas.
Days ago, OPEC had reported on the drop in oil production in Venezuela in February, from 732,000 barrels per day in January to 704,000, the next month. Crude oil is the backbone of the economy and PDVSA is pointed out as the symbol of inefficiency and internal corruption. It is in this context that the actions of the prosecutor’s office that aim to clarify the fate of oil shipments abroad without due payment to the company take place.
Reaction of the Miraflores Palace
As expected, President Nicolás Maduro came out to support Saab’s task. “A true revolutionary is characterized by sensitivity, humanism and, above all, honesty. Today more than ever our actions must be guided by spirituality.High ethics and morals! Let’s defeat anti-values!” He said through social networks.
God given hairthe number two of the madurismo, had the same reaction. “Never before in Venezuela has corruption been denounced as in the government of Hugo Chávez and President Nicolás Maduro,” said and praised the presidential decision to undertake judicial reform. Cabello, in turn, warned the members of the state structure and the ruling PSVU that “we will make the full weight of the law fall” on those who commit acts of corruption.
“What we are seeing in the last hours, far from being an act of justice, it is a reckoning between the leadership that holds power. Corruption continues at the highest level and the common citizen also deals with it every day,” said the opposition leader Henrique Capriles.
“Maduro wants to look like Watch it, more bread and circuses, if this is fulfilled, which I see as very difficult, then we would be left without public officials, without judges, without mayors, the public prosecutor’s office would remain headless, and you stop counting,” said José Antonio Velásquez on the left portal Aporrhea.