AFP
CARACAS
Energiesnet.com 10 17 2024
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called on Tuesday on oil companies to disassociate themselves from Maduro’s “criminal” regime in Venezuela. “Aregime a” regime that is corrupt and criminal”.
Venezuela’ s oil industry has been under sanctions since 2019 but Washington grants individual licenses to operate in the country to several companies, such as U.S. Chevron, Spain’s Repsol and France’s Maurel & Prom.
Venezuela’ s oil industry has been under sanctions since 2019 but Washington grants individual licenses to operate in the country to several companies, such as U.S. Chevron, Spain’s Repsol and France’s Maurel & Prom.
These energy companies “have to realize that they are associated with the most corrupt company in the energy sector in the world that has been accused of money laundering and even drug trafficking, PDVSA”, the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, Machado said during a panel organized by the Georgetown Americas Institute, in Washington.
“Nobody knows the nature of the contracts that have been signed, which violates our Constitution, nobody knows how much they are paying the regime, how much the government is getting from their operations,” she added in a telematic connection hours after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro joked that she had fled the country.
“It’s not just a question of the international community understanding what these resources are being used for, but I wonder what the shareholders and stakeholders of these companies think about the goodwill and reputation” of the companies, Machado commented.
“Our message to them is that we want them here, we want them to invest and generate a lot of resources, a lot of money, a lot of employment for Venezuela, but not like this, not like this, not under a regime that is corrupt and criminal and that violates and is violating the laws of Venezuela,” she insisted.
In recent weeks, voices have been raised calling for these companies to cease their activities in the Caribbean country due to the post-electoral repression unleashed after Chavista Maduro was proclaimed winner in the July 28 elections amidst allegations of fraud.
The post-election demonstrations left 27 dead – two of them military – and more than 2,400 arrested.
The only thing left for Maduro “is violence and repression”, Machado stressed, but it can be “very dangerous” for those who have decided to stay in the country “and move forward”.
The charismatic politician believes that “a transition to democracy” is possible. But to achieve it Maduro needs “incentives to negotiate (…) and we have not yet reached that point”, she concluded.
The opposition lives in hiding. Its electoral candidate Edmundo González Urrutia went into exile in Spain after being the target of an arrest warrant for an investigation linked to allegations of fraud in the elections.
afp.com 10 16 2024
