VENEZUELA NIXES US COURT’S PERMISSION TO SELL CITGO REFINERIES

Venezuela has condemned U.S. judge Leonard P. Stark’s approval of the sale of refineries owned by CITGO, a subsidiary of Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA, calling it an act of “modern piracy.”

"Venezuela denounces the decision of the District Court of Delaware regarding the judicial sale of the shares of CITGO, owned by PDVSA, after carrying out an act of modern piracy through a process that lacks legitimacy," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza said in reaction to Stark’s order, which was released on Friday, May 22, 2020. In a story published by teleSUR on May 24, 2020, Venezuela said the order allows a Canadian mining company to collect $1.4 billion from a decade-old dispute in the South American nation by selling three refineries owned by CITGO in Louisiana, Texas and Illinois.

With U.S. backing, lawmaker Juan Guaido and sectors of the Venezuelan opposition have been conducting this illegal operation to confiscate the Venezuelan public’s wealth and assets, the Venezuelan government warned. "For such purposes, they have delegated to the lawmaker Juan Guaido and his accomplices, the establishment of a fraudulent representation of the Republic and PDVSA, which is not only illegal but acts to the detriment of the national interest, and to the benefit of interventionist intentions,” Arreaza stressed.

The case with Crystallex is the result of a ruling by the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an international arbitration institution of the World Bank (WB.) Venezuela said PDVSA, CITGO and PDV Holding are not debtors of Crystallex and they are not subject to the procedure before the ICSID Arbitration Tribunal. "Crystallex only had a contract for services on the mine, which gave it no right to property or assets in Venezuela. This is an organized crime that violates international law," Vice President Delsy Rodriguez declared last year in July, adding that the government has "evidence of how opponents planned to take over the resources of the state-owned company PDVSA, and its subsidiary CITGO," which provides the U.S. with between 5% and 10% of its gasoline.