This Monday the United States, through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac), issued the general license number 42 where it “authorizes” the ex-deputies belonging to the opposition extremism to carry out transactions related to debt negotiations of the Government of Venezuela, PDVSA or any entity in which the Republic has a participation equal to or greater than 50%.
This measure, which has been denounced by Venezuela as “a blatant robbery attempt” of Citgo, arises after the Delaware Court of Justice authorized Venezuelan debt creditors to seize the Venezuelan company.
This action that the Venezuelan authorities have denounced as null and void, empowers the members of the extinct National Assembly of 2015 to designate those in charge of establishing these negotiations that Venezuela has already indicated that they will ignore.
The document tacitly denies any transaction that involves the legitimate National Assembly elected for the period 2021-2026, thus maintaining its policy of ignorance of the Venezuelan institutionality, which began with the administration of Donald Trump under the policy of “maximum pressure” that it sought the economic asphyxiation and diplomatic isolation of Venezuela.
Petty cash of the “interim”
In a last ruling from October 2022, the federal judge for the district of Delaware, Leonard Stark, approved a timetable for the sale of Citgo shares and in another ruling from March of this year ruled that the so-called “interim government exercised extensive control of PDVSA by using funds from its subsidiaries for its own purposes, ordering the state company to make and suspend debt payments and announcing that its debt and that of the Republic would have the same treatment.”
Given this, the judge ratified his ruling and accepted the seizure claims filed by OI Glass Inc, Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc, ACL1 Investments Ltd and Rusoro Mining Ltd, in addition to the one previously filed by Crystallex, noting that compliance with this decision It would depend on a modification in the sanctions scheme, an action that is fulfilled with this Ofac license.
Venezuelan defense
For its part, the Venezuelan government has indicated that it is unaware of these actions and announced that it will promote the legal actions necessary to defend this asset of the Republic and apply justice against those who have facilitated this attempted dispossession where extremist opposition ex-deputies are the protagonists.
