Venezuela rejects US ruling that allows creditors to benefit from PDVSA subsidiary

The Government of Venezuela rejected this Tuesday that the US Justice has accepted that a group of ten creditors of the Caribbean country participate in the distribution of profits from the auction of the shares of Citgosubsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in the North American nation.

In a statement, the Executive of Nicolás Maduro expressed that this decision “constitutes an additional step in the multiform aggression that is carried out from the institutions“Americans”against Venezuela, with the purpose of plundering” the “assets that belong to it, in clear transgression of the norms that govern peaceful coexistence between States”.

Likewise, this ruling “confirms the serious damage caused to the interests and assets of the Venezuelan people by the criminal action of the organized crime group calling itself ‘National Assembly of 2015’ which, since 2019, has sought to usurp the institutions and representation of the Republic in the foreign”.

Caracas refers to a group of former deputies who were part of the Parliament elected in 2015 with a large opposition majority and who, despite the fact that their term expired in January 2021, maintain this figure by not recognizing the current Legislature, controlled by Chavismo.

In this way, according to the Venezuelan Government, “have prevented the legitimate authorities from taking the necessary actions for the effective protection of Citgo within the United States, flagrantly violating the agreements signed in Barbados.” between the ruling party and the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), which brings together the majority sector of the opposition.

The Government assured that “will continue to adopt all political, diplomatic and legal measures at its disposal to avoid the consummation of the definitive dispossession of the Citgo company“, at the same time that “will continue to demand that the organs of the Venezuelan justice system establish the corresponding sanctions against those responsible for the theft of this asset.”.

Control of Citgo was handed over by the Government of Donald Trump (2017-2021) to Venezuelan opponents in January 2019.

Until now they were the Canadian mining company Crystallex and the American oil company ConocoPhillips who had acquired rights to the share auction.

The recent ruling opens the door for other companies such as Siemens Energy, Rusoro Mining, OI Glass or Huntington Ingalls to participate in the distribution of profits from the auction.

These companies asked the court handling the case, located in Delaware, to enter the case after Crystallex and ConocoPhillips began to negotiate a possible pact with the management of Citgo.

Crystallex claims 970 million dollars Venezuela and ConocoPhillips about US$10,000 million.

Citgobased in Houston (Texas) and valued at about US$12 billion, has three refineries in the United States, six oil pipelines and nearly 4,200 service stations.