Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said on Monday that, beyond the corruption crimes for which the arrest of former Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami was ordered, investigations indicate that the official conspired with opposition leaders to overthrow him.
“We had the corrupt and traitors at our side, I had them, they had them, and it couldn’t even cross my mind that they could betray me or that they could be stealing,” Maduro said on his weekly radio and television program.
The president noted that the recordings that Attorney General Tarek William Saab showed hours before represent 1% of the evidence they have of the conspiracy and corruption plot within the state corporation Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), and of the alleged links of El Aissami with opposition leaders. Among these he mentioned the exiled leaders Leopoldo López and Julio Borges.
“The right was articulated” with El Aissami — who was also former president of PDVSA — to “destroy us from within,” he asserted.
Maduro pointed out that they have evidence of conversations, telephone calls and videoconferences between opponents and businessman Samark López, directly linked to El Aissami. The latter was arrested a few weeks ago, more than a year after he resigned from office.
El Aissami would be linked to a million-dollar corruption plot initially focused on PDVSA and that would have extended to other state companies.
In March 2023, El Aissami resigned, arguing that he was doing so by virtue of the investigations. “that have been initiated regarding serious acts of corruption in PDVSA”, and with the aim of “support, accompany and fully endorse this process.”
El Aissami will soon be presented at a preliminary hearing, the attorney general indicated in a statement to the press, without mentioning the exact date.
Another 65 people are detained in the case, including Samark López. They are accused of treason, appropriation or distraction of public assets, money laundering and criminal association.
The prosecutor stressed that he does not rule out new arrests in the case.
In their social media accounts, opponents López and Borges classified as false the accusations that they allegedly have links with El Aissami, despite recognizing that they have maintained contacts with officials of the Maduro government, who would be interested in bringing about a political change. In Venezuela.
The attorney general has said that all those investigated, including El Aissami, are related to the National Superintendence of Cryptoactives, where the Prosecutor’s Office detected a network of officials who, using their positions and levels of authority, would have carried out parallel commercial operations in PDVSA, Cartones de Venezuela and the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana. The latter is in charge of managing a group of steel companies and iron, bauxite, gold and diamond resources, among others.
The diversion of State funds through alleged suppliers that did not meet the requirements to contract with the government caused property damage. “incalculable in millions of dollars,” Saab said, without giving other details.
The Aissami, sanctioned by the United States as an alleged drug lord, experienced a rapid rise in power during the last two decades, in which he held several of the most important positions in the areas of security and economy of the government of the late President Hugo Chávez and of Maduro, his successor and political heir.
He held the Ministry of Interior Relations during Chávez’s mandate (1999-2013), and Maduro appointed him Minister of Petroleum in April 2020. He had just served as vice president of the republic during Maduro’s mandate.
Washington’s accusations against El Aissami did not affect his career. On the contrary, the Venezuelan ruling party classified him as a hero. But the arrest of several of his close friends finally put him in the spotlight.
El Aissami was also in charge of designing the strategy to circumvent United States sanctions, aimed at preventing the Maduro government from carrying out financial and commercial transactions abroad, by freezing Venezuela’s international assets and prohibiting Americans and their international partners. do business with Caracas.
