This Thursday the presentation hearing was held before the Second Anti-Terrorism Control Court to charge to the former Minister of Petroleum of Venezuela Tareck El Aissami, as well as Samark Lopez and Simon Zerpa, for the crimes of treason, appropriation or distraction of public assets, boasting or valuing, money laundering and association to commit a crime.
EL TIEMPO learned exclusively that he is also accused of economic conspiracy and corruption “to carry out the implosion of the economy,” according to a source linked to the process.
The Public Ministry alleges that El Aissami, who resigned from his duties a year ago, used the public funds of PDVSA and CVG so that they “were stolen by Sunacrip and in this way launder capital to private accounts of said corrupt individuals, as well as the purchase of high-end goods: without the sums of money entering the State through the Central Bank of Venezuela,” the source revealed.
The anti-terrorism court ordered the detention of the former minister, who was arrested on Tuesday.
According to Attorney General Tarek William Saab, the three men carried out an economic conspiracy “simultaneously with corruption.” Saab pointed out that the objective of this plan was the implosion of the Venezuelan economy “through the destruction of the national currency and the astronomical rise of the parallel dollar.”
In this way, he continued, they sought to “produce economic and financial chaos and social violence.”
The head of the Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor's Office) explained on Tuesday that these arrests are part of the second phase of an anti-corruption operation -announced in March 2023- related to a plot in the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa), for which more than fifty people have been arrested.
The whereabouts of El Aissami, former president of PDVSA, was unknown since then, when he resigned from his position to – as he said at the time – collaborate with the investigations.
The videos show El Aissami, Zerpa and López dressed in the same blue uniform and being guarded by security agents while they headed to the court.
These actions occur when the country is immersed in an electoral environment, facing the presidential elections on July 28, in which the head of state, Nicolás Maduro, – who has promoted this purge within his Government – will seek a second re-election.
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