MIAMI.- Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio questioned the recent arrest of the former Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum and president of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Tareck El Aissami by the Venezuelan regime, for his involvement in the PDVSA-Cripto corruption plot, linked to the state oil company.
In Rubio’s opinion, Maduro “is trying to clean up his image before the false elections in Venezuela by accusing a former member of his criminal dictatorship,” he wrote on his social networks.
The statement was made in reference to the presidential electoral process in the South American country, scheduled for July 28, in which the registration of the opposition leader María Corina Machado, nor that of her standard bearer Corina Yoris, was not allowed after her disqualification. for 15 years to run for public office.
Through his account on
Corruption plot
After his whereabouts were unknown for a year, when this embezzlement within PDVSA was revealed, the 49-year-old former official was arrested along with the former Minister of Economy and Finance Simón Zerpa and the businessman Samark López, considered by the United States Treasury Department United as front man for El Aissami.
The attorney general, Tarek William Saab, at the service of the regime, announced at a press conference that El Aissami, López and Zerpa will be presented and charged before the Public Ministry, for the crimes of treason, appropriation of public assets, use of relationships or influences, money laundering and association to commit a crime.
“The objective and purpose of this mafia, headed by Tareck El Aissami, was none other than to implode the national economy, destroy our currency by putting pressure on the parallel dollar to rise, and thus make the economic policies promoted by the Executive fail,” he asserted.
Saab detailed that through this corruption network, illegal oil operations were carried out that involved business conglomerates to legitimize money and, through the use of crypto assets, acquire real estate and investments in the construction sector.
The illegal operations involved the Superintendency of Crypto Assets (Sunacrip) and the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana (CVG), under the control of El Aissami, said the Chavista prosecutor.
Regime man
El Aissami, also accused by the United States in 2017, for “playing a significant role in international drug trafficking,” was a trusted man of the late ruler Hugo Chávez and held the portfolio of the Venezuelan Ministry of Interior Relations between 2008 and 2012, for later becoming governor of the state of Aragua, located in north-central Venezuela.
In addition, he served as vice president of the Maduro dictatorship, before being appointed Minister of Petroleum and sector vice president of economy in April 2020, a position from which he resigned in 2023, after the arrest of various officials in his environment involved in these operations. fraudulent.
According to the Venezuelan prosecutor’s office, 54 people have been accused of this scandalous case, who are detained, charged and accused, and 17 arrest warrants have been issued. After this first stage, the investigations continued, in which 5 of the detainees took advantage of the guarantee of “information” and became protected witnesses, Saab stated.
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Source: With information from social networks, Tal Cual, Infobae and Voz de América
