The CITGO board of directors illegally appointed by former deputy Juan Guaidó wants to backtrack on its policy and now wants to ask the government of Nicolás Maduro for help to be able to operate, according to a news published this Saturday, July 9, by the far-right news website Panam Post,
The fake executive director of the PDVSA subsidiary in the US, Carlos Jordá, appointed in 2020 by Juan Guaidó with the connivance of Washington, when he took over the company, now says that he is willing to resume imports of Venezuelan crude.
“To be competitive in this market, we have to buy the cheapest and most convenient crude,” Jordá said at a conference on Venezuela’s foreign energy assets.
“We should not be at a disadvantage against other refiners,” Jorda added, in reference to the fact that CITGO refineries, based in the United States, were designed to refine Venezuelan heavy crude oil.
Although the PDVSA subsidiary CITGO, stolen by Guaidó, now wants to resume imports of Venezuelan crude, it needs the approval of the US government headed by Joe Biden in order to achieve this. However, what the Biden administration should do is to allow the return of CITGO to its legitimate owner, the Venezuelan people, represented by President Nicolás Maduro.
When former deputy Guaidó illegally appropriated CITGO with help and support of White House, the US imposed a series of restrictions, including the suspension of imports of Venezuelan crude oil to the US in a failed attempt to instigate a coup against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
However, the US, realizing that the measure failed, and that it is currently experiencing a crisis as a result of its own sanctions imposed on Russia, it is looking for new alternatives, but is doing everything except what is right—returning CITGO to the Venezuelan people.
Added to this is the pressure on the Biden administration to allow Venezuela to return to the Western oil market.
This pressure has been coming from OPEC, CARICOM, and more recently from the French government, which asked Washington to allow Venezuelan and Iranian crude to be sold to Europe, which is struggling to replace Russian oil and gas supplies after the EU’s own battery of sanctions against Russia is causing a boomerang effect.
Chevron has also been seeking authorization from the US Treasury Department to ship Venezuelan oil to the United States and even gain operational control of its joint ventures with PDVSA, but has failed to receive any authorization until now.
“If authorized [Venezuelan] crude reaches the US Gulf Coast without penalties at competitive prices, especially if it is heavy crude, we would certainly have to evaluate it,” the illegitimate president of CITGO, Horacio Medina, said at the same conference.
Since March, meetings between high-ranking US and Venezuelan officials have been taking place in Caracas, due to Washington’s own interest, as it evaluates easing sanctions on Venezuela to reduce the negative effects of its own sanctions on Russia.
After the first meeting, the US government authorized European companies Eni (ENI.MI) and Repsol (REP.MC) in May to resume imports of Venezuelan crude, but only as a debt-swap operation.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC