Venezuelan Government Rejects the Appropriation of CITGO by US

The Venezuelan Government rejected on Saturday the decision of a U.S. Federal Court to initiate the process of selling the PDVSA's U.S. subsidiary, CITGO, one of Donald Trump's administrations' latest attacks against the Bolivarian government.

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"We alert the world that this judicial operation has not only been encouraged by the government of Donald Trump but that the legitimate representatives of Venezuela have been prevented from duly, integrally, and effectively defending the patrimonial interests of Venezuela and PDVSA through the imposition of unilateral coercive measures," warned the Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza in a statement.

Citgo is a subsidiary of the state-owned Oils of Venezuela (PDVSA) and the leading supplier of gasoline, lubricants, and petrochemicals in the U.S. The Federal District Court of Delaware decided on Friday to initiate the preparatory phases for the sale of shares of the company PDV holding, owner of CITGO, "with the alleged purpose of forcibly executing an arbitration award issued by a court against Venezuela in 2016," the official explained.

"As the highest authorities of the Venezuelan government have opportunely warned, the illegitimate and illicit appropriation of Citgo has been forged under the instructions of former congressman Juan Guaido and executed by Jose Igancio Hernandez, who is a fugitive from Venezuelan justice for having conceived an anti-legal framework to appropriate the assets of the Republic abroad, facilitate the delivery of the Venezuelan people's heritage to foreign powers through a gigantic electoral fraud and go against Venezuela's constitutional order," Arreaza recalled.