ConocoPhilips headquarters in Houston, Texas. File photo.
The Venezuelan government has released a statement categorically condemning the decision by a judge in the United States authorizing oil company ConocoPhillips to execute an arbitration award for $8.7 billion to the detriment of Venezuela. The Venezuelan state announced that the decision “was made by violating the right to defense of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”
US District Judge Carl Nichols of the Washington DC Court issued a ruling on Friday, August 19, ordering the Venezuelan government to pay $8.7 billion to ConocoPhillips, as compensation for allegedly having confiscated the energy company’s assets in oil projects. “The company’s motion for default judgment is granted because Venezuela has failed to appear or respond with court filings,” Judge Nichols ruled.
According to the judge, Venezuela should pay $8.5 billion in damages, in addition to $22 million for the reimbursement of legal expenses.
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Below is an unofficial translation of the statement from the Venezuelan government:
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the decision issued today by a judge of the Washington State Court, in which ConocoPhillips is authorized to enforce an arbitration award for up to $8.7 billion to the detriment of the assets of all Venezuelans.
This unjust decision has been made through violating the right to defense of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and in complicity with Venezuelan extremists, including Juan Guaidó and José Ignacio Hernández, who, usurping public functions, acted in collusion to favor ConocoPhillips in the case in point.
This unjust and illegal decision is intended to execute another step in the intricate web of corruption that facilitates the delivery of Venezuelan assets to foreign powers, through the imposition of unilateral coercive measures as well as through procedural fraud where the legitimate representatives of Venezuela are prevented from fully and effectively defending the interests and assets of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and of PDVSA.
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We also make a call to the international community about the obvious maneuvers with which the plunder and fraud against a sovereign nation is being justified. With this decision, the United States has not only violated international law, but it also highlights the absence of guarantees and justice for any nation.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will never renounce the legitimate defense of its rights and interests in the relevant instances, and ratifies that it will actively continue with legal actions against the traitors to the nation who participated in this fraud, and with firm commitment to preserve the patrimony of the Republic whose only owner is the Venezuelan people.
Caracas, August 22, 2022
(Alba Ciudad) by Luigino Bracci Roa
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/FV/SC/EF
Luigino Bracci
He is passionate about computer science since he was about 14 years old, at that age “a man gave me a small computer that he had bought in the eighties, of those that were connected to a television and had to be programmed to work (a Sinclair ZX81 ), and I really liked it.” On his political inclination, his parents were a great influence. “They were people of very humble origins, both emigrants, dissatisfied with injustice and inequality. But they were not militants of the left. I had many other influences, classmates in HS whose parents were on the left, as well as several teachers who were trained in the Pedagogical and gave us classes at a time as conflictive as it was the presidency of CAP and the military insurrection of Chávez ” He enrolled in the UCV and in 2006 he graduated in Computing, a career that he complements with popular communication in the digital field.
