Nicaragua Rejects Judicial Sale of the Venezuelan Company CITGO
Refinery of the Venezuelan company CITGO. Photo: X/ @_Davidcu
June 18, 2024 Hour: 1:28 pm
This unlawful confiscation is part of the U.S. colonialist and imperialist policies, President Ortega pointed out.
On Tuesday, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega issued a statement rejecting the forced sale of shares of the Petroleum Corporation (CITGO), a subsidiary company of Petroleum of Venezuela (PDVSA).
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Sharing the indignation of the Venezuelan government and people, Ortega described the U.S.-based judicial sale as an illegal and unlawful confiscation carried out as part of “the colonialist and imperialist policies of the United States, which continue to plunder the resources of the people.”
“Once again, we condemn these absurd outrages, which reflect the invariable U.S. filibustering behavior that continues to do so much damage to humanity,” the Nicaraguan president stated.
“Our fraternal and supportive embrace to President Nicolas Maduro and his administration and social movements. An embrace with the strength of the great liberating spirit of our great and extraordinary beings, who guide our combats and battles for justice, truth, and rights,” he stressed.
Throughout its history, the Venezuelan nation has managed to overcome the greed of Yankee imperialism that is usually unleashed against the working people, Ortega recalled.
Currently, U.S. authorities are implementing a sale of CITGO shares to supposedly pay its debts. This PDVSA subsidiary is at risk of being seized as a group of creditors have seizure orders that could be executed if the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorizes it.
In January 2019, the Trump administration handed control of CITGO to the Venezuelan far-right opposition. That happened at a time when this oil company was valued at US$12 billion and had three refineries, six pipelines and about 4.200 service stations across the United States.
Since then, CITGO has remained under the control of a board of shareholders that does not respond to the decisions made by PDVSA or the Venezuelan state, a situation that contradicts the most basic principles of international private and public law.
On Tuesday, former Colombian president Ernesto Samper criticized the judicial sale of CITGO shares and warned about the consequences of that action in international law.
“With the process to the Venezuela-owned company CITGO, the United States is inaugurating a dangerous form of international expropriation that seeks to invalidate its property titles worth US$21 billion to deliver them, without Venezuela being able to exercise its right of legitimate defense, to the creditors of the company,” he said.
“Little or nothing helps this financial bundle to the electoral process that currently occurs in Venezuela. Forcing to make elections amid sanctions is a subtle but effective way to intervene in the right of voters to vote freely without having a shotgun like this in the neck,” Samper noted.
Source: Nicaraguan Presidency – VTV
teleSUR/ JF
