One of those people was the Venezuelan jurist and academic Omar Estacio, who declared to DIARIO LAS AMERICAS that “during the discussions of the respective bill, by the spurious National Constituent Assembly, with a publicly pro-government majority, we warned that with such regulations, a very dangerous floodgate to corruption was being opened.”
The Anti-Blockade Law of 2020 (Anti-Blockade Constitutional Law for National Development and the Guarantee of Human Rights) allowed Petróleos de Venezuela to sell the crude oil to receive payment in Cryptocurrency in the name of legal entities other than the state oil companywhich gave rise to these irregularities being committed, the lawyer explained.
When asked if this legal text was made to execute a network of corruption, he responded that it would be risky for him to say that it was executed with the specific purpose of committing these irregular acts, “but a floodgate was opened.”
“We focused on pointing out the dangers of relaxing PDVSA’s already weak control mechanisms, apart from the obvious fact that payments for oil exports were going to be received by people or front corporations, who could easily appropriate those resources,” added Estacio, president emeritus of the Venezuelan Bar Association.
The expert explained that With this law “all financial controls of Petróleos de Venezuela are neutralized and sterilized. It is absurd that in this type of negotiations, the state oil company is the selling company and whoever receives the sales price is an absolutely strange company,” he emphasized.
“One thing is that there are no accounting traces when the payment made to PDVSA through cryptocurrencies is made, and another is that, after a prolonged fiscal period, the company has no money,” Estacio has explained on repeated occasions.
Cryptoactivos
Article (32) of the Anti-Blockade Law that opened the gap to corruption states that “in order to protect transactions involving financial assets of the Republic and its entities, the National Executive may authorize the creation and implementation of any financial mechanism… including the use of Cryptoactives and instruments based on blockchain technology.”
Estacio considers that “in the least serious of the scenarios for Mr. Maduro, there exists in his person a serious case of political responsibility.” for having promoted a law that gave rise to this case of megacorruption. But unfortunately, in Venezuela the principle of responsibility of State officials is not in force.”
He remembered that This Law was made in response to the sanctions decreed against Venezuela by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, United States, that was the pretext for the implementation of that regulation.
Regarding this point, he reiterated that “We have always been opponents of such types of sanctions.”. They do not overthrow any government and ultimately, it is the People who suffer them,” he pointed out.
Secrecy
In the complaints made so far, the official PSUV deputy Hermann Escarrá said that the amount involved in the embezzlement is 23,000 million dollars. Financial reports from news agencies indicated that Petróleos de Venezuela sold the equivalent of 27,000 million dollars and only 4,000 million entered the coffers of the state-owned company..
On this point, Estacio said that “secrecy has prevailed, as in many other actions of Mr. Maduro’s misgovernment. Secrecy was imposed in oil shipments, but secrecy – very selective secrecy – has been imposed in investigations and alleged sanctions. Some responsible parties have been exposed to public opinion.”
But “on the back of such action, evidence of the exact amount of the looting has not been presented, the jurist added. “Even less have details been given of the results of the efforts to recover the stolen amounts,” Estacio pointed out.
El Aissami
He recalled that Tareck El Aissami remained detained and incommunicado, without being presented before a judge for 14 long months.. “During that period he had to be interrogated and perhaps tortured – given that the latter has been imposed as State policy – to make him report where and who had all or a significant part of what was stolen, but the investigators who must present the evidence of the alleged political conspiracy of El Aissami and his alleged accomplices, they have not reported anything about the possible recoveries.”
After being missing for more than a year, the Attorney General’s Office of Venezuela announced the arrest of El Aissami, making progress in the PDVSA-Crypto corruption plot, which began in March 2023, when various state officials and Venezuelan businessmen involved were arrested. in this network of corruption in the oil industry.
Once again he asked himself “how is it that El Aissami had been detained for 14 months, when the law says that every person arrested must be brought to justice within 48 hours,” he insisted.
“Given the recurring lack of probity in the actions of Mr. Maduro’s government, we would not be surprised if, after the secrecy, around the rescued assets, a new act of corruption is being recorded. That is, the amounts recovered, instead of entering the Public Treasury, end up in the pockets of the researchers.”
In his opinion, it is very unlikely that a crime of such large proportions, which took place over several fiscal years, has not been noticed by the highest levels of the government.”
A mafia crime
He indicated that “its alleged perpetrators have been held incommunicado, without the possibility of appointing lawyers they trust. It would be very interesting to hear their versions. In particular, the revelations of who else in the high government benefited from the theft. Meanwhile, All the elements available point to a mafia crimein which the differences in the distribution of the loot lead to results like the one observed.”
University professor Omar Estacio reiterated that in Venezuela there is no true justice system. “The lack of independence and autonomy of our justice system makes any investigation in matters like this null and void. We will have to wait to know much of its details, until a true separation of powers prevails in Venezuela,” he concluded.
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Source: INTERVIEW ATTORNEY OMAR ESTACIO / DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS
