The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has strongly rejected the decision of a U.S. court that upholds the forced sale of CITGO Petroleum, calling it a \u201cvulgar and barbaric plundering\u201d of a strategic asset of the Venezuelan people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement read by Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, it was denounced that this act constitutes a \u201cfraudulent process\u201d and a \u201cnew episode of the multifaceted aggression being carried out by the United States against Venezuela.\u201d The official asserted that PDVSA and the Venezuelan State \u201cwere intentionally and illegally excluded from the process,\u201d denied the right to a defense under the \u201ccrude excuse\u201d of not recognizing the legitimate government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The official statement indicates that this dispossession was carried out \u201cin complicity\u201d with figures from the radical opposition such as Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia, Juan Guaid\u00f3, Julio Borges, Carlos Vecchio, and Jos\u00e9 Ignacio Hern\u00e1ndez. It identifies these individuals as part of an \u201corganized crime group\u201d that, since the self-proclaimed National Assembly of 2015, attempted to usurp the country\u2019s representation, leaving it defenseless against this \u201cblatant theft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVenezuela reiterates that it does not recognize and will not recognize the forced sale of CITGO,\u201d stated Rodr\u00edguez, carried out in \u201cflagrant disregard\u201d for legal and economic guarantees. The government reaffirmed that it will adopt \u201call measures at its disposal\u201d to bring to justice, including international prosecution, all those who promoted and carried out this plunder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis case will go down in history as blatant and pathetic evidence that foreign investments are neither respected nor guaranteed in the United States of America,\u201d the statement concluded, asserting that the Venezuelan people will teach a \u201chistoric lesson\u201d to those who have betrayed the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Fraudulent Authorization of the Sale of CITGO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an act that consolidates one of the largest expropriations of the modern era, a U.S. federal judge approved the forced sale of CITGO Petroleum, the main international subsidiary of Petr\u00f3leos de Venezuela (PDVSA). This ruling, issued by Judge Leonard P. Stark in Delaware, represents the culmination of a long, politically charged legal process aimed at depriving the Venezuelan state of a strategic asset valued at billions of dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The transaction, approved for $5.9 billion in favor of Amber Energy, constitutes a veritable \u201crobbery,\u201d according to expert analysis, given that the company\u2019s real value is between $11 billion and $13 billion. Professor and analyst Werther Sandoval describes it bluntly: \u201cThe collusion, the coven, the legal-political alliance of the US judiciary with the puppet government and the vulture creditors\u2026 will steal CITGO from PDVSA under the guise of collecting a debt that doesn\u2019t belong to PDVSA, but to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mechanism for this dispossession was set in motion after the Trump administration\u2019s illegitimate recognition of a parallel government in Venezuela in 2019. Sandoval explains that it was then that \u201cthe sham [Guaid\u00f3\u2019s government] ballooned [the debt] to $23.6 billion to make it unpayable and thereby exacerbate the creditors\u2019 financial woes in order to sue and seize Citgo.\u201d This strategy violated the capitalist legal principle of the alter ego or corporate veil, which protects a subsidiary from the debts of its parent company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the analysis details, \u201cprior to Guaid\u00f3\u2019s usurpation, CITGO was never over-indebted\u2026 Venezuela, even up until 2019, before the self-proclamation, fully complied with its payment obligations.\u201d The illegal takeover of the board of directors by figures aligned with the opposition, such as Luisa Palacios and Carlos Jord\u00e1, paved the way for vulture creditors to file massive lawsuits in U.S. courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dual Objective<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ambition for CITGO is not new. Sandoval recalls that historical warnings, such as those from former President Carlos Andr\u00e9s P\u00e9rez, cautioned that owning a refinery 100% in the US made it \u201cvulnerable and susceptible to protectionist measures.\u201d The dual objective was, on the one hand, to strangle a vital source of foreign currency for the Bolivarian nation and, on the other, to seize a profitable industrial complex that for decades has disproportionately benefited the US economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCitgo was acquired to ship Venezuelan oil at below-market prices, at a discount, which results in the delivery of large sums in taxes to the US Treasury, at the expense of lower dividends and almost no tax payments to the Venezuelan state,\u201d Sandoval points out. Its total control was a key element in the multidimensional economic war against Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This ruling, which the Bolivarian Government has vehemently denounced as a daylight robbery, will have serious repercussions. Sandoval warns that \u201cany relationship and agreement between the US and Venezuela will be tainted by the precedent of the theft of CITGO, a criminal act that will always be present\u2026 generating distrust and raising the costs of any bilateral negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Venezuelan state has made it clear that it will exhaust all legal avenues at the international level to recover what legitimately belongs to it. The sale, which still requires regulatory approvals and would not be finalized until 2026, stands as a monument to the double standards and lawfare employed by the empire and its local collaborators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IMAGE CREDIT: Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez stated: \u201cThere will be international accountability for those governments that lent themselves to this blatant theft and plunder of a valuable asset like CITGO.\u201d Photo: Venezuelan Vice Presidency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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