Workers from Venezuela's publicly-owned oil company, PDVSA, prepare to drill. Photo: PDVSA/File photo.
A total of 10 people, including Venezuelan, Spanish, and Costa Rican nationals, were accused by the US regime of evading sanctions imposed by the US against PetrĂłleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) by exporting aircraft parts, reported the US Department of Justice in its website. All 10 are accused of conspiring to violate the US International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and will face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if convicted.
The White House alleges in its indictment that “between January 2019 and December 2021, after learning of the sanctions imposed on PDVSA, the defendants devised a plan to illegally acquire aircraft parts, including Honeywell Turbofan engines, from the United States to offer service to PDVSA’s aircraft fleet in Venezuela in violation of the illegal US sanctions and blockade against the most important industry of Venezuela.”
To carry out this scheme, the defendants allegedly “hid from US companies that the goods were destined for Venezuela and PDVSA, exporting them to third parties in other countries, including Novax Group SA (Novax), a Costa Rican company, and Aerofalcon SL (Aerofalco), a Spanish company. The Department of Commerce added Novax and Aerofalcon to its list of entities in November 2023,” according to the US Department of Justice.
One of the defendants is George Clemente Semerene Quintero, 60, who, according to the Department of Justice, was arrested on April 19, 2024, upon arrival at the Miami International Airport.
The defendants include the following four people associated with PDVSA, Venezuela’s publicly owned petroleum company:
• Gilberto Ramón Araujo Prieto, 54 years old, PDVSA air transport manager and colonel in the Venezuelan army;
• Guillermo Ysrael Marval Rivero, 62 years old, and Fernando José Blequett Landaeta, 52 years old, both PDVSA air transport managers and logistics analysts responsible for procurement;
• George Semerene, head of logistics, procurement and storage at PDVSA.
The defendants also include four people associated with Novax:
• Luis Alberto Duque Carvajal, 63, from San José, Costa Rica, owner of Novax;
• Melvin Alemán Espinoza, 39 years old, director of operations at Novax;
• Mikhail Largin, 60, director of special projects at Novax;
• Pedro ElĂas Sucre Salazar, 58 years old, Novax employee in Venezuela.
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The defendants also include two people associated with Aerofalcon:
• Juan Carlos González Pérez, 60 years old, owner of Aerofalcon;
• Juan David Guerra Viera, 54 years old, director of Aerofalcon.
“Duque, Alemán, Sucre, González, and Guerra Viera are also accused of presenting false or misleading export information and merchandise smuggling, which carries maximum sentences of five and 10 years in prison, respectively,” adds the US website.
In the indictment, which can be read on the aforementioned website, where they explain part of the sanctions that Washington has been illegally applying against Venezuela since 2015, the US government says that several of the accused did not receive or have “authorization from OFAC or the Department of Commerce to export goods, technology or services, of any kind, to PDVSA.”
These 10 individuals are accused of “knowingly combining, conspiring, confederating, and agreeing with each other and with other persons known and without the knowledge of the Grand Jury to intentionally export, transfer and deal in, and cause the export, transfer, and transaction of goods from the United States to PDVSA in violation of the prohibitions imposed on PDVSA by the United States government, without having first obtained licenses or authorizations from OFAC.”
The US regime currently has a total of 930 unilateral coercive measures—euphemistically referred to as sanctions—in place against Venezuela. This economic blockade has caused enormous losses to the Venezuelan economy and its people. However, the Maduro administration has been able to bypass the sanctions and demonstrate more than three consecutive years of positive economic grown, in terms of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth. In addition, the Maduro administration has managed to eliminate the hyperinflation that was created by these illegal and unilateral sanctions.
(Alba Ciudad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
