The Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said it would be using a United States-based fund to receive some of its country’s oil income in a key move to stake its efforts to oust current elected legitimate president Nicolas Maduro.
According to Reuters news reports, the fund would receive the income accumulated by country’s state-run oil company PDVSA’s USA unit Citgo Petroleum Corp from the last month, when the US President Donald Trump had recognized Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela, Carlos Paparoni, the opposition legislator told Reuters on Thursday.
In a Twitter post on Wednesday, the White House national security John Bolton said Washington would like to consider sanctions ramp-off on Venezuelan senior military officers if they recognize the constitutional government of Guaido and stand for democracy, and if not, “the international financial circle will be closed off completely.
He tweeted: “The U.S. will consider sanctions off-ramps for any Venezuelan senior military officer that stands for democracy and recognizes the constitutional government of President Juan Guaido. If not, the international financial circle will be closed off completely. Make the right choice!”
The U.S. will consider sanctions off-ramps for any Venezuelan senior military officer that stands for democracy and recognizes the constitutional government of President Juan Guaido. If not, the international financial circle will be closed off completely. Make the right choice!
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) February 6, 2019
Citgo, Venezuelan top foreign asset as well as eight-largest US refiner, has gotten stuck between the tug of war as Washington made aggressive actions to oust it from Maduro’s power and control and imposed sanctions over OPEC-member oil industry of Venezuela.
Paparoni said, “This is already quite advanced, I hope that next week it can be announced by our representative in the United States.” However, he did not offer any details over the nature of the financial institution involved or the US-based funds.
Guaido’s policy team member Yon Goicoechea has told Reuters that Guaido was already in contact with international partners of PDVSA and they appeared optimistic to continue operating in Venezuela.
Goicoechea said Guaido’s team was planning for a post-Maduro government including various emergency arrangements in order to supply fuel domestically.