Venezuelan oil minister resigns amid corruption scandal
March 21st 2023
El Aissami said his sidestep sought to help investigators fight PDVSA corruption
Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami Monday resigned his post after the opening of a corruption investigation involving the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).The Public Prosecutor’s Office and the National Anticorruption Police launched an operation in which two officials were arrested. The illegal deeds were reported to amount to US$ 3 billion of PDVSA funds.. In office since April 2020,.El Aissami, a powerful ally of President Nicolás Maduro, was singled out by the United States as an alleged drug lord.
_By virtue of the investigations that have been initiated into serious acts of corruption in PDVSA; I have taken the decision to present my resignation as Minister of Petroleum, to fully support, accompany, and back this process,_ El Aissami said on Twitter. After resigning, El Aissami announced his support for this new _crusade_ of the government against corruption. _Likewise, as a revolutionary militant, I place myself at the disposal of the PSUV leadership to support this crusade that President Nicolás Maduro has undertaken against the anti-values that we are obliged to fight, even with our lives._ .
In 2020, El Aissami was added to the US list of the 10 most wanted fugitives. In 2017 he was said to be a major drug trafficker and was indicted two years later on allegations of violating sanctions imposed by Washington. The White House offered a US$ 10 million reward for his capture.
Venezuela’s National Anti-Corruption Police arrested two men linked to El Aissami: PDVSA’s vice-president of Commerce and Quality Supply, Colonel Antonio Pérez Suárez, and Joselit Ramírez, National Superintendent of Cryptoassets (SUNACRIP), who manages the oil industry’s funds through cryptocurrencies.
The arrest occurred after police suspected high-ranking officials _could be involved in serious acts of corruption and embezzlement,_ according to the official report. Also arrested were Deputy Hugbel Roa; lawyer Cristóbal Cornieles; Santos Michelena Mayor Pedro Hernández, and the control judge for crimes associated with terrorism, José Mascimino Márquez.
Venezuela’s oil industry has been the target of other corruption investigations, which ended with the arrests of dozens of PDVSA employees and two oil ministers, Eulogio Del Pino and Nelson Martínez. Rafael Ramírez, who was oil minister between 2002 and 2014, is on the run abroad after being charged with embezzlement.,