Exclusive: Argentine Government Begins Looting PDVSA's Assets

On March 23, several actions of the Argentine government have materialized a set of coercive and unilateral measures against Venezuela, which have compromised the operations of Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) in that country.

Argentine media has reported the forced closure of the company Petrolera del Conosur SA (PCSA), a company owned by the Venezuelan State under the regency of PDVSA América, PDVSA’s continental subsidiary in the region.

This company consists of a fuel distribution plant and a set of related facilities that have facilitated the supply to some 70 gas stations on Argentine soil, and were founded in times of PDVSA expansion during the government of President Hugo Chávez, also being a member of the holding of Venezuelan companies that, abroad, are subject to sanctions, pressures, looting and acts prior to their freezing, disqualification or de facto confiscation.

IN CONTEXT, THE BOYCOTT OF PETROLERA DEL CONOSUR
Since January of this year, Washington’s actions against PDVSA and its assets abroad have consisted in the freezing of financial assets, bank accounts and physical assets.

Misión Verdad has had access to sources that have underlined that, since January, the bank accounts of PDVSA América and its companies, including PCSA, have been closed by Argentine banks when adhering to actions ordered by the US Department of the Treasury and the requests that the “representative of Juan Guaidó” in Argentina, Elisa Trotta Gamus, has been demanding.

As a result, the possibility of using banking services has been disabled; since the month of February, PCSA operations have been down.

This company has also been unable to make the lease payment for the port facility where it is located, specifically the Dock Sud port in the Province of Buenos Aires, where the fuel plant owned by PCSA is stationed. The amount of accumulated debt is 35 thousand US dollars.

Now, the port activity, subject to the Provincial authority under the control of Maria Eugenia Vidal, has proceeded to violate the locks, enter the PCSA facilities and has prevented the entry of personnel to said plant, alleging the immediate eviction of the facilities for “non-payment”. The Dock Sud port authorities proceeded with the filing of a legal case and the decision was that the place was now a “recovered property”.

The PCSA fuel filling plant had been lethargic in recent months and serious difficulties had arisen in the payment of personnel since February, precisely because of the impossibility of conducting transactions because the Argentine authorities ordered these companies’ accounts frozen.

On the other hand, the authorities of the Buenos Aires port Dock Sud, at the expense of the debt of 35 thousand dollars and through its measure of eviction, have appropriated the assets of PCSA calculated at a value of almost 200 thousand dollars, an act that can be considered a theft of Venezuela’s sovereign assets.

BOYCOTT OPERATORS
Sources told Mission Verdad that, prior to these events, Elisa Trotta Gamus, former employee of the Argentine public administration and now “Ambassador” of the government of Guaidó in the southern nation, had contacted the banking entities related to PCSA to urge them to close the bank accounts of that company, requesting they adhere to the sanctions imposed by the US Department of the Treasury.

Several of these entities agreed to this, because they also joined the position of the government of Mauricio Macri, which recognizes the “authorities” imposed by Juan Guaidó.

Misión Verdad also had access to a communication that was written by María Eugenia Talerico, vice president of the Financial Information Unit, a body attached to the Argentine central government, who by means of an official notice dated January of this year established a measure of “Warning to the Obliged Subjects on Operations with or Linked to the Illegitimate Government of Venezuela”.

This order addressed to all subjects of law in Argentina, implies the development of a witch hunt, or the monitoring of any operation of legal persons in that country, with people, companies and Venezuelan institutions under the direction of the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

The communication warns of “the risks that could be incurred if they carry out operations with the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro and its environment or with any public entity, or company owned, or under the control of the Venezuelan State, without the endorsement of the National Assembly” of Venezuela, the text says.

The instruction of the Financial Information Center – a punitive and regulatory instance in that country – constitutes an ultimatum that justifies the closing of PSCA and PDVSA América bank accounts in Argentina by Argentine banks, a causal factor of the non-payment and now eviction of the fuel plant.

For his part, Nicolás Dujovne, head of the Ministry of Finance of Argentina, had previously executed the action to suppress the Venezuelan state subsidiary PSCA from the registration of oil companies, in accordance with a decision of the National Direction of Refining and Commercialization of that country, a situation that had complicated PSCA’s operations on Argentine soil. This is a legal disqualification action, as a relevant event in PDVSA’s boycott in that country.

THE VENEZUELAN PROTO-STATE ABROAD
The actions harmful to the Venezuelan interest now taking place in Argentina, are a replica of similar actions and of various kinds that are taking place in other countries. These are specific actions of control, confiscation or disqualification of property belonging to PDVSA and the Venezuelan State.

As a record of these events, the capture of CITGO Petroleum Corporation, a Venezuelan subsidiary on US soil, refining and distributing fuels to more than 7,000 petrol stations owned by it on US soil, has taken place. An operation in which the “Ambassador” of Juan Guaidó in the United States, Carlos Vecchio, has been a key player.

On May 27, the Guaidó “Ambassador” in Colombia, Humberto Calderón Berti, confirmed through the efforts and support of the Colombian government, was sworn in as the new director of Monómeros, a limited liability company dedicated to the production of caprolactam, ( raw material of nylon) and compound fertilizers, and whose legitimate owner is the Venezuelan State through the Petrochemical Corporation of Venezuela (PEQUIVEN).

The modus operandi of the proto-state of Guaidó abroad, with a US invoice, consists in the freezing, dismantling and capture of Venezuelan assets outside the country, thanks to the sponsorship of (US lackey governments). This type of actions concur through the creation of a parastatal structure, totally outside Venezuelan legality, which assumes the control of national goods and money and proceeds to its discretional management.

Another key denominator of the para-State abroad is the total absence of instances of administrative and political regulation on the management of those goods. There are no judicial bodies, no Attorney General, or any other instance of administrative presidence outside Venezuela, to which these companies and their new gendarmes respond, which poses a huge risk to national assets and a screen of corruption in the making.

Source URL: Mision Verdad

Translated by JRE\