The Colombian Minister of Agriculture, Cecilia López Montaño, and her Venezuelan counterpart, Wilmar Castro Soteldo, spoke about the “strengthening” of Monómeros. In recent weeks, Colombian authorities have expressed the intentions of the Petro government to acquire the company.
Some $20 million has been invested by the government of Nicolás Maduro in Monómeros, a Venezuelan state-owned company that produces fertilizers in Colombia, since it recovered the company after being administered by the interim government of Juan Guaidó since 2019.
The information was provided by the Minister of Agriculture, Wilmar Castro Soteldo, on his Twitter account. The official detailed that he held a meeting with his Colombian counterpart, Cecilia López Montaño, and with the president of Pequiven and representative of Monómeros, Pedro Rafael Tellechea, in order to discuss the “strengthening of the petrochemical company.”
«The Bolivarian Government has invested $20 million in the accelerated recovery process of this company. In the short and medium term, it will be able to be at its maximum capacity,” said Castro Soteldo in a Twitter post.
The Bolivarian Government has invested 20 million dollars in the accelerated recovery process of this company, in the short and medium term it will be able to be at its maximum capacity. pic.twitter.com/gW9tgWH81K
—Wilmar Castro (@wcastroPSUV) December 16, 2022
After becoming one of the most important companies in the Colombian agricultural sector, Monómeros has suffered years of decline in the last five years. In August 2021, it was intervened by the Superintendence of Companies (Supersociedades) of Colombia due to irregularities within the company. After an evaluation by the Colombian regulatory body, they determined that the company was in a “critical situation”, submerged in debt and cash problems.
The measure of control of Supercompanies on Monomers was lifted in August 2022, just two days after Gustavo Petro took office as president of Colombia. From this moment on, speculation began about the possibility of the Colombian government returning control of the company to the Chavista government, which ended up happening a month later.
This would not only ratify the close relations between the Venezuelan and Colombian governments due to Petro’s presidency, but could also be related to an attempt by Colombia to buy Monomeros.
*Read also: Colombia could be open to buying monomers from Venezuela
According to Colombian finance minister José Antonio Ocampo, the Petro government would be interested in acquiring the company. On the other hand, the Minister of Agriculture who met with Castro Soteldo this Friday, specified that this possibility would depend on negotiations with the Maduro government.
“The Minister of Finance already said that the idea sounds familiar to him, that is, that we have a path to explore there, and it will depend on the talks with Venezuela,” said López Montaño.
Neither Castro Soteldo nor López Montaño went into details about the issues that were discussed at the meeting held on the occasion of the First Colombian-Venezuelan Government, Trade Union and Business Meeting, but they confirmed that they spoke about Monomeros.
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