US Court Rules Canadian Firm Can Collect $1.4B From Venezuela

With United States backing, self-declared interim president Juan Guaido and the Venezuelan right have been conducting an illegal operation to confiscate the Venezuelan public’s wealth and assets, Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said Wednesday.

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According to reports, the right had planned to use Crystallex International, a Canadian mining company, to supersede the U.S.-imposed sanctions and “expropriate resources from Citgo — a subsidiary of the Venezuela state oil company, PDVSA.

On Monday, a U.S. court ruled in favor of the Crystallex appeal to sidestep the sanctions and collect US$1.4 billion in Citgo funds, meant for Venezuela and its public.

"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," Rodriguez stated, 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."

The vice president denounced the U.S. courts as a "false assumption" which defends its criminal actions byway of stubborn refusal to recognize the Venezuelan government, i.e. its officials, as a legitimate institution.

The Venezuelan government plans to denounce in the U.N. and higher courts as it "a huge international operation to steal resources from Venezuela,” Rodriguez explained in a state television broadcast.

"It is the history of humanity, where transnationals seek to impose through war, through international judicial instances, and now through these unconventional idioms, such as the non-recognition of governments to expropriate their resources," adding that Venezuela plans to take the issue to a higher court.

Crystallex declined to comment, Reuters reported.