MIAMI.- The Venezuelan lawyer Omar Estacio He referred to the arrest of the former oil minister and president of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Tareck El Aissami, wondering “how is it possible that more than 21 billion dollars can disappear without a dictatorship finding out.”
“Where is the money from oil sales? How does a group of officials steal such a huge amount of money without being discovered? 27 billion in oil were sold and only 4 billion had entered PDVSA,” he questioned during an interview with journalist Óscar Haza on Mega TV, which provided the video of the program to DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS.
Estacio also warned that in a tyranny like that of Nicolás Maduro, like that of Castro in Cuba and that of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, “the only law there is is that there is no law.”
Therefore, he expressed that analyzing this matter in which, in his opinion, opacity prevails from a legal point of view “is naive”, because in Venezuela there is no real law.
After missing for more than a year, the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office announced the arrest of El Aissami, after making significant progress in the PDVSA-Cripto corruption plot, which began in March 2013 and at that time included the arrest of various officials. of the State and Venezuelan businessmen.
Along with the former vice president, the former Minister of Economy and Finance Simón Zerpa was detained, as well as the businessman Samark López, who, like El Aissami, is wanted by the US authorities.
The three officials were presented before the Second Court of Control against Terrorism, and were charged with the crimes of “treason to the country, appropriation or distraction of public assets, boasting or valuing, money laundering and association to commit a crime.”
The Attorney General under the command of Nicolás Maduro, Tarek William Saab, detailed that El Aissami, Samark and sepa were involved in the execution of illegal operations that included the assignment of oil loads to other entities such as the Superintendency of Crypto Assets (Sunacrip) and the Corporation Venezuelan Guayana (CVG), under the control of El Aissami.
Corruption plot that lawyer Omar Estacio described as “a true international criminal organization”, in which approximately 80 people closely linked to El Aissami operated and acted as front men, many of whom are currently detained.
At the same time, he asked himself: “How is it that if El Aissami had been detained for 14 months, he is presented to the Venezuelan authorities at this time, when the law says that every arrested person must be presented to justice within 48 hours.”
What happened to the Anti-Blockade Law?
He recalled that in 2020, an Anti-Blockade Law promoted by the ruling National Constituent Assembly (ANC) convened by Nicolás Maduro was approved in an unconstitutional manner, “which resulted in PDVSA being able to sell the oil and instead of receiving payment in accounts from the state oil company, was paid in cryptocurrency on behalf of different legal entities.”
“With this law, all the financial controls of this oil entity are neutralized and sterilized. It is absurd that in this type of negotiations PDVSA is the selling company and whoever receives the sales price is an absolutely strange company,” he emphasized.
“It is one thing that there are no accounting traces when the payment made to PDVSA through cryptocurrency is made and another is that after a prolonged fiscal period, the oil company does not have money,” Estacio continued.
Appearance of legitimacy
The Venezuelan jurist asserted that with these arrests Maduro intends to seek appearance in the face of the presidential elections on July 28, which have been involved in a scenario of arrests, disqualifications, and persecution of the opposition by the Chavista regime.
“In addition to dressing up with an appearance of legitimacy to seek the endorsement of some foundations and international observers,” he added.
Until recently, El Aissami was considered Nicolás Maduro’s right-hand man in decision-making within the Chavista leadership along with Cilia Flores, the Delcy brothers and Jorge Rodríguez, Diosdado Cabello and Vladimir Padrino López.
He served as vice president of the South American country, before being appointed Minister of Petroleum and sectoral 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 fraudulent operations.
In addition, the 49-year-old official was a trusted man of the late ruler Hugo Chávez, holding the portfolio of the Venezuelan Ministry of Interior Relations between 2008 and 2012.
@Lydr05
Source: With Mega TV interview information
