Tareck El Aissami, Minister of Petroleum of Venezuela, with Nicolás Maduro in a file photo FEDERICO PARRA (AFP)
Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami resigned Monday as a result of investigations announced on Sunday into officials linked to a corruption plot at the heart of state oil company PDVSA. “Following the investigations launched into serious acts of corruption at PDVSA, I have made the decision to submit my resignation as Minister of Petroleum in order to give full support, guidance and support to this process,” El Aissami said from his Twitter account before joining the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) to “support this crusade that President Nicolás Maduro has undertaken against the anti-values that we must fight even with our lives”.
Petróleos de Venezuela, which was once a giant in the sector and now lies dying after years of mismanagement and embezzlement of resources, has chained several cases of internal corruption, but it is the first time the Chavista authorities have spoken so openly about any of them the plots. . The head of Venezuela’s prosecutors, Tarek William Saab, did so on Sunday, who is pushing ahead with the start of an investigation into officials already arrested by anti-corruption agents from the National Police. All of them “appear to be allegedly involved in serious acts of corruption,” Saab said in a statement released via social media.
This group includes, as Saab himself confirmed to the agency AFP, the official deputy Hugbel Roa, the president of the Caracas criminal circle, Cristóbal Cornieles, Colonel Antonio Pérez Suárez, who works as the vice president for trade and quality supply of the state oil company, and Joselit Ramírez, national superintendent of Cryptoactives, a public body that manages the oil industry’s increasingly tight budget through cryptocurrency deals.
Five prosecutors “with jurisdiction in matters of corruption, organized crime, human rights and broad jurisdiction” have been appointed to investigate. “The illegal investigations correspond to different branches and levels of public power and include strategic sectors for national development and the administration of justice,” the state ministry continued.
The fall of Tareck El Aissami, head of oil policy in Nicolás Maduro’s government, is a blow to a leadership marred by several corruption cases handled by PDVSA in recent years and a testament to the power tensions the country has Experience PSUV in their ranks. El Aissami, accused by the United States of drug trafficking, had risen through the ranks of government, reaching the position of executive vice president between 2017 and 2018.
News in development. There will be an update shortly.
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