Venezuela rejects “forced sale” of CITGO: It constitutes a vulgar plunder (+statement)

In a statement, read by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez to the media, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela rejected on Tuesday the “forced sale” of the company CITGO by the United States (USA), which “constitutes a vulgar and barbaric dispossession of a Venezuelan asset in U.S. territory.”

“Venezuela reiterates that it does not recognize and will not recognize the forced sale of CITGO, carried out in flagrant disregard for economic guarantees and freedoms, due process and the right to defense guaranteed by any civilized nation,” the text states.

Below is the full document:

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strongly rejects the decision taken in the judicial proceeding of, in quotation marks, the forced sale of the company CITGO Petroleum Corporation, which has been executed by the authorities of the United States of America to the detriment of the interests of Venezuela and its entities and which constitutes a vulgar and barbaric dispossession of a Venezuelan asset in United States territory through a fraudulent process.

The company CITGO is a valuable asset of Petroleos de Venezuela that seeks to be plundered by the United States government under the instrumentation of a judicial procedure that is clearly contrary to law.

The Government of Venezuela and PDVSA were intentionally and illegally excluded from the process, thanks to the trafficking of influence of the U.S. government over the courts of that country, preventing them from exercising the right to defense under the rude excuse of ignorance of the legitimate Venezuelan government, which was specially designed to steal strategic assets from our country.

The imminent forced sale of CITGO constitutes a new episode of the multifaceted aggression being carried out by the United States against Venezuela in complicity with María Corina Machado, Edmundo González Urrutia, Juan Guaidó, Julio Borges, Carlos Veccio, José Ignacio Hernández and the organized crime group calling itself the National Assembly of 2015, which has sought to usurp the representation of the Republic and its entities abroad to leave Venezuela without any defense against blatant theft.

Venezuela reiterates that it does not recognize and will not recognize the forced sale of CITGO, carried out in flagrant disregard for the economic guarantees and freedoms, due process and the right to defense guaranteed by any civilized nation.

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reaffirms that it will continue to adopt all measures at its disposal to ensure that the promoters and executors of the dispossession of CITGO are brought to justice and that the corresponding civil and criminal liability is imposed for the loss of this asset owned by the Venezuelan people, including the international responsibility of foreign entities that lent themselves to this dispossession.

This case will go down in history as patent and pathetic evidence that foreign investments are not respected or guaranteed in the territory of the United States of America, which can be the subject of illegal appropriations at any time under far-fetched subterfuge.

The Venezuelan State has the relevant laws and institutions to bring to justice those who facilitated this looting and are accountable to Venezuelan society for their stateless and criminal actions. The Venezuelan people will give historical lessons to those who have dared to hand over and steal everyone's heritage. Justice will be done!