On Tuesday, September 7, the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounced the flagrant assault on the company Monómeros, an asset of the Venezuelan State in Colombia, by Colombia’s Superintendency of Corporations (SCC).
This was informed by Freddy Ñañez, Venezuelan vice president of Communication, Culture and Tourism.
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In an official statement by the Venezuelan government in this regard, the government the action of the Colombian entity and referred to it as an attack on the country by the Colombian government headed by Iván Duque, “in complicity with the mafias led by Juan Guaidó, who have stolen millions of dollars through the seizure and illegal appropriation of assets from the republic.”
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Moreover, President Nicolás Maduro has instructed the government delegation in Mexico to immediately include this issue at the dialogue table, as an assault on the property of the Venezuelan people.
According to the statement, “the Venezuelan delegation will denounce the intention of Iván Duque to torpedo the dialogue between the government and sectors of the Venezuelan right.”
The SSC took control of the company Monómeros Colombo Venezolanos SA, headquartered in Barranquilla, Colombia, on Monday, September 6, under the pretense of investigating the corruption and mismanagement that the company has suffered after a so-called ad-hoc board, imposed by the “interim government” of former deputy Juan Guaidó, assumed the administration of its assets and operations under the auspices of the government of Colombia.
It is only now that the SSC has decided to investigate the complaints of embezzlement that have been brought to light for almost a year, and especially regarding the signing, last April, of a 15-year contract with the Panamanian company Lion Street, through which 60% of the company’s annual profits, about $7.5 million, was given up to the Panamanian partner.
The decision to seize Monómeros, which is a subsidiary of Petroquímica de Venezuela SA (PEQUIVEN) and hence of Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), occurred just a few days after President Maduro placed the issue of the return of the company in the negotiation agenda that is going on between the Venezuelan government and the extreme right Unitary Platform.
Monómeros, an important asset of the Venezuelan State, produces and supplies nitrogenous fertilizers to meet the agrochemical needs of the Colombian as well as the Venezuelan market. According to calculations by the Colombian government, Monómeros supplies at least 45% of the fertilizer demand of the agricultural sector of Colombia. In addition, even El Tiempo presented an investigation, according to which, Venezuelan agrochemicals are part of the cultivation process of four out of every ten kilos of food that Colombians consume.
Monómeros in Colombia, along with CITGO in the United States and the Venezuelan gold in the Bank of England, is part of the billions of dollars worth of national resources that remain seized or frozen abroad by Guaidó’s collaborators, specifically in countries the governments of which sponsored and supported the self-proclamation of the former deputy as the “interim president” of Venezuela, disregarding and not recognizing the constitutional government of President Maduro.
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Opponents repudiate the move from Colombia
Opposition voices in Venezuela have repudiated the Colombian government’s confiscation of Monómeros. Francisco Rodríguez, an economist openly opposed to the government of President Maduro, called the seizure of Monómeros by Supersociedades as an “inexplicable and unjustifiable decision” and stressed that “Monómeros belongs to Venezuela, not to Colombia.”
Later, in an interview with a digital medium, Rodríguez explained that Colombia justified itself stating “defects in the management of the company. We are talking about defects in the management of the interim government.”
“What seems surprising is that the temporary confiscation by Colombia has occured under the administration of the interim government,” added the economist.
Featured image: Monómeros Plant in Barranquilla, Colombia. Photo: Últimas Noticias
(Últimas Noticias) by Narkys Blanco and Víctor Pablo Castellanos
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/GMS/SC
