Venezuela Recovers Monómeros, New Board of Directors Appointed

Venezuela is on the definitive path to recover the fertilizer company Monómeros Colombo Venezolanos SA, as the Petroquímica de Venezuela (Pequiven) has appointed a new board of directors for the company. The Venezuelan fertilizer company, headquartered in Barramquilla, Colombia, had been under the control of a fake board of directors since 2019, promoted by former Colombian President Iván Duque, who had ceded the compnay to the “interim government” of former deputy Juan Guaidó.

According to the Colombian newspaper El Heraldo, on August 8, Pequiven introduced a document signed by its president, Pedro Rafael Tellechea Ruiz, before the Chamber of Commerce of Barranquilla, with the list of names of the Venezuelan team that will assume the legal control of Monómeros. This has been confirmed by former Colombian congressman and member of that chamber of commerce, César Lorduy.

https://twitter.com/clorduy/status/1557901922224455682

The new board of directors was appointed after a meeting of the main shareholders, among which are the companies Copequin, Fertilizantes de Oriente, International Petrochemicals Holding Limited, and Pequilago.

According to the Pequiven document, the members of the new board will be Luis Enrique Molina, Heifred Segovia, Eduardo Fernández Anaya, Mary Yerman Nava and Génesis Ron Solano. Their alternates will be Rosa Díaz, Ninoska Rodríguez, Nohemy Rodríguez, Marco Aurelio Piñero, Sergio Arias and Graed García Bocaranda.

https://twitter.com/clorduy/status/1558116323217088514

The current Guaidó-controlled board opposed and denounced the formation of the new board, reports the portal Zona Zero.

However, the decision was in the hands of the Colombian Superintendence of Companies after Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered it to return the company to the Venezuelan government.

This action of the Colombian government, which for the moment has not provided details about the procedure, coincides with the recent decision of the Colombian Superintendence of Companies—the government body in charge of auditing companies in that country—to eliminate the maximum degree of supervision that it had maintained on Monómeros since September 2021.

Fall in production after Guaidó’s seizure of Monómeros
In 2018, the production of Monómeros was over 800,000 tons and it was at 92 % of its total operating capacity, while in 2019, after being taken over by Guaidó, the figure dropped to 22 %, that is, just 176,000 tons.

The irregularities in Monómeros during Guaidó’s tenure have not only been denounced by the Venezuelan government, but even its own allies have warned about the opaque management of those who were placed in charge.

There are tension within the “interim government” regarding the current situation of the company. Some in that fake government are trying to put the blame on the current “president” of Monómeros, the Venezuelan Guillermo Rodríguez Laprea, as well as Diana Bracho, appointed by Guaidó as head of the parallel board of directors of Pequiven.

On August 5, just two days before Gustavo Petro’s inauguration as the president of Colombia, the Colombian Superintendence of Companies eliminated its maximum degree of intervention that it had maintained for Monómeros for about a year.

The “president” of Monómeros imposed by Guaidó, Guillermo Rodríguez Laprea, told Blue Radio at that time that if Petro finally returns the control of the company to Venezuela, the industry would be paralyzed and some 2,000 jobs would be put at risk, 800,000 farmers would be left without fertilizers, and food prices in Colombia would increase. He did not mention, however, that it was his disastrous management of the company that has almost bankrupted it, and it will be an arduous task for the government of President Nicolás Maduro and the new board of Monómeros to recover its former functioning and productivity.

(Últimas Noticias) by Odry Farnetano, with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/AF