May 24, 2023 , 3:52 p.m.
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Since the illegal takeover of the company, Guaidó's board of directors has directed the company's profits not only to obtaining new debt, but also to the delivery of "dividends" and pharaonic "humanitarian aid programs" (Photo: Archive )
Since the illegal takeover of the company, Guaidó's board of directors has oriented Citgo's profits not only to obtaining new debt ("refinancing") but also to delivering "dividends" and pharaonic "humanitarian aid programs" in the form of of subsidies and donations, while playing at worsening the gasoline shortage and preventing Venezuela from using Citgo's resources to face the pandemic.
The Simón Bolívar Foundation (FSB, hereinafter) is a private non-profit organization founded by Citgo Petroleum in 2006 to provide medical assistance to a varied panorama of cases in Venezuela, and also in the United States.
Prior to the kidnapping of the subsidiary by the White House as part of the "Guaidó operation" in 2019, it had stood out as a source of support for the medical care of children with cancer, who were covered for treatment doctor, in addition to transportation and maintenance, in the United States.
After the illegal change of directive, this purpose was cancelled. The FSB has become a source of revenue transfer to a galaxy of interests of various sizes.
In March 2020, the illegal board of directors appointed by Juan Guaidó appointed Mariela Poleo as president of the FSB. His profile on the Citgo website highlights that "Poleo worked for more than 20 years at Equinor Asa —formerly Statoil— where he held various global positions, including Head of Finance and Control —controller— for North American exploration and development offshore projects. In various roles, Poleo has overseen multi-billion dollar budgets and has managed strategic planning, risk and financial analysis for large projects in North America, South America, Norway and Africa."
During the first days of August 2020, the FSB announced a grant of 1 million dollars to three international charities: AID FOR AIDS International, Food Fr The Poor Inc. and the Pan-American Development Foundation (Fupad).
According to the consulted report , Aid For Aids International would use the resources to provide "nutritional supplements" to 6,000 children in Venezuela, Food For The Poor inc. It would allocate its share to care for 36,000 Venezuelan migrants in Cúcuta, while the Pan-American Development Foundation would provide 1.4 metric tons of medicines for 7,000 Venezuelans.
The grant given by the FSB seems too high for the requirements put forth by the selected charities:
The organization Ais For Aids was founded in 1996 and, according to its official website, its objective is to provide medicines and retrovirals to people with HIV/AIDS. For this reason, it is curious that the grant obtained is based on the distribution of nutritional supplements, even though it is not the declared objective of the charity.
Adriana Cisneros de Griffin, president of the Cisneros Foundation and vice president of the Venezuelan business organization, is among the founding members of Aid For Aids. According to Poderopedia, María Eugenia Maury Arria, current wife of former diplomat Diego Arria , is the president of Aid For Aids, although Laura Messina is currently recognized in the position on the organization's official page .
At organization events, however, María Eugenia Maury can be seen sharing with Diego Arria and Laura Messina, which reveals her managerial position in the organization chart.
On the other hand, Fupad was created in 1962 as an affiliated organization of the Organization of American States. It receives financing from the US government , as it publicly declares. The center of its activity is located in Colombia, where it shows off its cooperation with US institutions such as the anti-narcotics bureau and security agencies such as the Colombian Police.
Although the Fupad presents itself as an organization with humanitarian purposes, data and investigations involve it in activities closer to the external interference propagated by Washington. According to a 2010 investigation by lawyer Eva Golinger, "one of the Fupad programs, for which it received $699,996 from the State Department in 2007, was dedicated to the development of independent media in Venezuela" and journalism. via "innovative technologies".
This orientation towards media initiatives can be seen precisely in the record of public activities of that organization. He launched a school for youtubers in Colombia and the tasks of "humanitarian aid" have only been reduced to the delivery of hygiene supplies to Colombian migrants returned from Venezuela.
There are no records that the delivery of "humanitarian aid" to the 36,000 Venezuelan migrants, which is why he obtained the FSB grant, is taking place.
Food For The Poor Inc. It is one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the United States and has a strong Christian profile. The "humanitarian support" to Venezuela has been more than anything declarative and in its press records no systematic activity stands out, which raises wide doubts about the underlying reasons for receiving the FSB subsidy.
The organization acknowledges that it has worked for years with the United States Southern Command in the deployment of its "humanitarian" operations. Specifically, during the month of October 2018, it collaborated with supplies and personnel in the deployment of the USNS Comfort throughout Latin America in the framework of pre-war pressures against Venezuela.
https://misionverdad.com/como-repartier ... 019-y-2020
CITGO LOOT (INVESTIGATION)
william serafino
Aug 31, 2020 , 8:11 a.m.
Since Juan Guiadó's self-proclamation in January 2019, the Citgo Petroleum company has been at the center of an extended political, legal and narrative battle for control of its operations.
SOME BACKGROUND
This subsidiary of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in the United States is made up of three huge refineries with a processing capacity of 769,000 barrels per day and more than 4,000 gasoline distribution stations spread over 30 states of the Union. Such magnitudes give Citgo Petroleum a market value of more than 8 billion dollars, which has made it, for years, a highly coveted asset.
Even before Guaidó's leap into the void, Citgo was already in the crosshairs of the US government. On May 21, 24 hours after the victory of Nicolás Maduro in the presidential elections, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13835 with the objective of prohibiting the sale, transfer or use as collateral of any entity in the United States where the government Venezuelan had a participation greater than 50%.
Logically, the restriction measure was aimed at Citgo, but it was also aimed at blocking the external financing capacity of the Venezuelan state, stifling its income in foreign currency, as analyzed by a foribundous opposition economist at the time.
At the time, the move was interpreted as the first step in an official embargo on the company, a vision that ended up being confirmed some time later.
In August 2018, the legal offensive of the Crystallex corporation (where the lawyer José Ignacio Hernández, future "prosecutor" of Guaidó, was part of his legal team) conquered a position of strength in the Delaware Court under Judge Leonard Stark . The argument that PDVSA's shareholding control over Citgo made it an alter ego of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, favored the claim of the Canadian mining company to collect an old dispute with the assets of Citgo Petroleum.
In 2018, the US government not only advanced in wresting control of the company from the Venezuelan state; Now there was a serious threat of definitive dispossession, which has become increasingly dangerous in recent months given the actions of Guaidó's fake attorney , who put Citgo on a silver platter from the same corporations with which he had worked years before. .
A few days after Guaidó jumped into the void, during the first half of February , his supporters in the National Assembly appointed a new board of directors for Citgo and PDVSA Holding, going beyond the entire existing legal framework, headed by Luisa Palacios and Carlos Jordá, both linked to the US financial and oil sector.
The decision was taken as a practical step in the "asset protection" campaign, aimed at covering up the looting of national assets under the guise of the fight against corruption by the government of Nicolás Maduro.
Carlos Vecchio, named as Guaidó's emissary in the United States, moved forcefully and quickly. In March he made a “protocol” visit to Citgo to stress that the parallel government was in effective control of the company.
Vecchio argued that, with the illegal change of directive, "we are not only protecting our assets, we are also preventing further destruction and losing the company."
To hide the seriousness of the Citgo kidnapping, Vecchio resorted to demagogy to distract public opinion. The idea was to promise that Venezuelans would ultimately benefit: “All that money has to be used for more opportunities for economic and social development, to create jobs and bring the minimum wage, not to 5 dollars as it is right now, but to raise it much more to increase purchasing power”.
A spokesman for the US Department of the Treasury consulted by Voice Of America indicated, referring to the 7B license, that these measures on Citgo were aimed at prohibiting "any profit from returning to the illegitimate Maduro regime." From that moment on, and as a complement to Executive Order 13835 of the previous year, Venezuela would not have access to the earnings reported by Citgo, nor to fuel, spare parts and other supplies demanded by PDVSA.
REARRANGEMENT OF SANCTIONS
On January 28, 2019, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and then National Security Advisor John Bolton announced the inclusion of PDVSA on the List of Specially Designated Citizens and Blocked Persons (SDN, for its acronym in Spanish). in English), pursuant to Executive Order 13850, issued in November 2018.
The measure implied the definitive embargo of PDVSA and its subsidiaries, blocking any transaction with US companies and opening the way for fearsome secondary sanctions. Instantly, at least 9 general licenses were issued that allowed some operations blocked by the designation of PDVSA, such as the extension of Chevron's operations in Venezuela, certain transactions with certain bonds and other Citgo marketing activities.
Of all these licenses, 7B stands out, which allows Citgo to operate in the US market. With this instrument, which has been renewed without interruption from 2019 to the present, Washington prevents the company's dividends from going to Caracas and, at the same time, "authorizes" the Guaidó team to maintain effective control of the subsidiary.
In other words, while maintaining the embargo situation, it favors a supervised administration of the coup plotters through the 7B license and others with similar characteristics .
ENERGY AND FINANCIAL BOYCOTT
As of today, the company is in a situation of extreme vulnerability, especially after Judge Leonard Stark determined, at the end of May of this year, that Crystallex can collect its historic claim with the sale, under auction conditions, from Citgo refineries.
The legal setback was a catastrophic blow to the management of Guaidó's "asset protection" and especially to his fake attorney , José Ignacio Hernández, who weakened the defense of Venezuela's national interests by replacing the Attorney General's Office. before US courts.
These events have generated endless reactions that have dismantled the little credibility Guaidó had left. In parallel, the US government has intervened by modifying and extending some of the licenses from last year to prevent Citgo from being auctioned off as ordered by Judge Stark of the Delaware court.
Meanwhile, Citgo's illegal management tries to pretend normality. In February of this year, as an "anniversary" for the kidnapping of the board of directors, the new management issued a "performance report" highlighting the change in the company's strategic orientation and how it is framed within the energy (and financial) boycott ) against Venezuela.
“We also took critical steps to improve the resiliency of our operations by quickly and efficiently optimizing our crude pipeline, replacing Venezuelan crude with inexpensive crudes from Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador while simultaneously increasing our U.S. light crude runs. Low-priced light US crude now accounts for 48% of CITGO's total crude supply and 64% of total US Gulf Coast crude,” the report stated.
This change and substitution of supply routes has benefited oil companies both in the United States and in countries in the region that are commercial rivals of PDVSA and that have cleverly taken advantage of US sanctions as an instrument of unfair competition and war. commercial.
The report also states that “These efforts have not only helped us better serve the US market, but have also allowed us to become a major exporter of refined products; in fact, exports now represent 25% of CITGO's total production”.
In this way, the new Guaidó leadership has laundered the destructive US sanctions in the name of an operational realignment of Citgo. So, while on the one hand Washington blocks and threatens ships, insurers and shipping companies involved in the gasoline trade with Venezuela, on the other hand Citgo increases its fuel exports at the expense of the shortage produced by the sanctions in Venezuela.
A New York Times report in 2018 indicated that Citgo was sending Venezuela "around 29,000 barrels a day of refined fuels, such as gasoline." In addition, adds the US outlet, "Citgo (...) imports 175,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude every day?—? almost one of every five barrels that the country exports to the world?—?, which provides the leftist government with dollars it needs desperately".
In this sense, the substitution of purchases of Venezuelan crude not only hits Venezuelan finances and those of PDVSA hard, but the 29,000 barrels per day that were sent to Venezuela in 2018 are now very surely exported and the profits they generate do not return to the country. A perfect model of looting and corruption.
In turn, by having Citgo controlled, Washington sharpens the blockade on fuels and the drought of foreign exchange, the two main vectors of the economic war.
A recent report published in Reuters points out that the gasoline shortage is due to the fracture of the natural relations between Citgo and PDVSA, its parent company, due to US sanctions:
“But these so-called exchanges with its main partner, Citgo, which is its refining subsidiary in the United States, were interrupted when the administration of President Donald Trump sanctioned PDVSA in January 2019 as part of its campaign to oust President Nicolás from office. Maduro," says journalist Luc Cohen.
FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE HOLDERS
In that report, the Venezuelan Luisa Palacios, who right now serves as president of the Citgo board of directors by appointment of Guaidó, was consulted. According to La Tabla , Palacios is part of an oligarchic family from Caracas and has worked for US financial institutions for a long time.
Palacios told the New York Times in 2018 that
"Citgo's integrity as a company is at risk (...) I don't see how PDVSA can keep Citgo, because all of Citgo is compromised on one side or the other with different types of lenders, and disgruntled creditors are managing to affect its stability."
Palacios' marked interest in Citgo's lenders has been printed in the performance reports of the new board.
“When we assumed our role as board members last February, our first task was to place CITGO on solid financial footing. During 2019, we successfully refinanced 70% of the aggregate debt of CITGO and CITGO Holding, managing to reduce CITGO Holding's debt costs by $220 million in 5 years”, the mentioned report reports .
In another more recent report it is stated that the
"July 6, 2020, CITGO's Board of Directors approved the recommended dividend payment of approximately $63 million to its immediate parent, CITGO Holding, Inc., which was paid on July 29, 2020." A few days later, “CITGO successfully refinanced its 2021 Term B Loan with the proceeds of a private offering of 7.00% senior secured notes due 2025. The offering of notes was oversubscribed, allowing CITGO to increase the offering to $1.125 billion and provide additional liquidity.”
These reports establish a whole line of financial priorities for the new board of directors with respect to the final destination of the profits generated by the company.
Among the new priorities are indebtedness, payment to debt holders and the maximization of dividends that, paradoxically, are received by a "parent company" that is also controlled by Guaidó.
Carlos Vecchio's premise of using Citgo money to generate "more opportunities for economic and social development in Venezuela" has proven to be a farce. Luisa Palacios and Carlos Jordá, both at the top of the illegal management of Citgo, have aligned themselves against the interests of Venezuela.
HELICOPTER MONEY
An important organization within that gigantic network that is Citgo is the Simón Bolívar Foundation (FSB, hereinafter), a private non-profit foundation established in 2006 to provide medical assistance to a varied panorama of cases in Venezuela and also In U.S.A.
The organization, prior to the kidnapping of Guaidó, had stood out as a source of support for the medical care of boys and girls suffering from cancer, who were covered for medical treatment, as well as transportation and maintenance, in the United States.
After the illegal change of directive, this purpose has turned 180 degrees. The FSB has become a source of revenue transfer to a galaxy of interests of various sizes.
In March of this year, the illegal board of directors appointed by Guaidó appointed Mariela Poleo as president of Citgo's Simón Bolívar Foundation.
His profile on the Citgo website highlights that
“Poleo worked for more than 20 years at EQUINOR ASA (formerly Statoil) where he held various global positions, including Head of Finance and Control (controller) for North American exploration and development of offshore projects. In the various roles he has held, Poleo has overseen multi-billion dollar budgets, managing strategic planning, risk, and financial analysis for large projects in North America, South America, Norway, and Africa."
In the first days of August this year, the FSB announced a $1 million grant to three international charities: AID FOR AIDS International, FOOD FOR THE POOR INC. and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF).
According to the consulted report , AID FOR AIDS International would use the resources to provide "nutritional supplements" to 6,000 children in Venezuela, FOOD FOR THE POOR INC. It would allocate its share to care for 36,000 Venezuelan migrants in Cúcuta, while the Pan-American Development Foundation would provide 1.4 metric tons of medicines for 7,000 Venezuelans.
The grant given by the FSB seems too high for the requirements put forth by the selected charities:
The organization AID FOR AIDS was founded in 1996 and, according to its official website, its objective is to provide medicines and retrovirals to people with HIV/AIDS. For this reason, it is curious that the grant obtained is based on the distribution of nutritional supplements, even though it is not the declared objective of the charity.
Adriana Cisneros de Griffin, president of the Cisneros Foundation and vice president of the Venezuelan business organization, is among the founding members of AID FOR AIDS. According to Poderopedia, María Eugenia Maury Arria, current wife of former diplomat Diego Arria , is the president of AID FOR AIDS, although Laura Messina is currently recognized in the position on the organization's official website .
At organization events, however, María Eugenia Maury can be seen sharing with Diego Arria and Laura Messina, revealing her managerial position in the organization chart.
On the other hand, the Pan-American Development Foundation (PADF) was created in 1962 as an affiliated organization of the Organization of American States. It receives funding from the United States government and publicly declares so. The center of its activity is located in Colombia, where it shows off its cooperation with US institutions such as the anti-narcotics bureau and security agencies such as the Colombian Police.
Although PADF presents itself as an organization with humanitarian purposes, data and investigations involve it in activities that are closer to the external interference propagated by Washington. According to a 2010 investigation by lawyer Eva Gollinger, "one of PADF's programs, for which it received $699,996 from the State Department in 2007, was dedicated to the development of independent media in Venezuela" and journalism. via “innovative technologies”.
And it is precisely in PADF's record of public activities that this orientation towards media initiatives can be seen. It has recently launched a school for youtubers in Colombia and the tasks of "humanitarian aid" have only been reduced to the delivery of hygiene supplies to Colombian migrants returned from Venezuela.
There are no records that the delivery of "humanitarian aid" to the 36,000 Venezuelan migrants, which is why he obtained the FSB grant, is taking place.
FOOD FOR THE POOR INC. It is one of the largest humanitarian organizations in the United States and has a strong Christian profile. The "humanitarian support" to Venezuela has been more than anything declarative and in its press records no systematic activity stands out, which raises wide doubts about the underlying reasons for receiving the FSB subsidy.
The organization acknowledges that it has worked for years with the United States Southern Command in the deployment of its "humanitarian" operations. Specifically, during the month of October 2018, it collaborated with supplies and personnel in the deployment of the USNS Comfort throughout Latin America in the framework of pre-war pressures against Venezuela.
On the other hand, the FSB has also announced the selection of 15 projects with a humanitarian profile that will receive a total of 475,343 dollars in donations. Let's review some of them:
The Engagement Foundation Group organization declares receiving donations and financing from individuals interested in providing supplies, food and medical materials in Venezuela. Although he claims to have 500 volunteers with whom he has deployed "humanitarian aid" to migrants and refugees from various countries, including Venezuela. However, its activity log is rather small. The organization's board of directors is in the hands of Valeria Viera (executive director), Constanza Viera (assistant executive) and Marta Viera-Blanco, relatives of the illegally appointed ambassador to Canada, Orlando Viera-Blanco.
There is also the NGO Chamos, founded in 2007 in the United Kingdom and dedicated to raising "funds to support and improve local programs dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable children in Venezuela." The president of the organization is the Venezuelan Mariana Siblesz-Álvarez, who in July of this year participated in the seminar "Social development of Venezuela: beyond its borders", sponsored by the British-Venezuelan Society and Chamber of Commerce.
The event was attended by Lala Lovera, executive director of “Comparte por una Vida” (Colombia); Roberto Patiño, director of “Alimenta La Solidaridad”, and Felipe Muñoz, adviser to the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia. He was moderated by Peter West, president of the society.
In April 2019, Mariana Siblesz-Álvarez participated in a United Kingdom All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) event on Venezuela, where she shared with Guaidó's fake ambassador, Vanessa Neumann.
In a Facebook post by Chamos, he recorded the moment: “We are delighted to accompany Dr. Vanessa Neumann, Official Representative of President Juan Guaidó in the United Kingdom. We also want to express our gratitude to Britain's Department for International Development for sharing their contributions to help the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela."
The NGO Convite, for its part, is dedicated to caring for the elderly and carries out a series of training programs aimed at developing public policies. The NGO is Venezuelan and was founded in 2006. Its director is Luis Francisco Cabezas, who in 2008 took a right to speak before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in order to question the adult care policy elders of the Venezuelan state. For Francisco Cabezas, Convite focuses its activities on "making visible the tragedy of the humanitarian crisis" in Venezuela.
The NGO Friends of the Children of Venezuela is a non-profit organization focused on the delivery of medicines and hospital supplies in Venezuela. The NGO is directed by Andrés Caldera Radonski, who due to the similarity in the last names, could be connected with the opposition politician Henrique Capriles Radonski. In February of last year, Andrés Caldera Radonski published a photo of Henrique Capriles with Juan Guaidó on his Twitter account , showing his support for the ongoing coup agenda.
SOME CONCLUSIONS
Since the illegal takeover of the company, Guaidó's board of directors has directed the company's profits not only to obtaining new debt ("refinancing"), but also to the delivery of "dividends" and pharaonic "humanitarian aid programs ” in the form of grants and donations, while playing to exacerbate the gasoline shortage and prevent Venezuela from using Citgo resources to face the pandemic.
The delivery of the subsidies and donations by the FSB is part of a discretionary and partial use of the money of the Venezuelan company, where most of the NGOs and foundations benefited are directly or indirectly related to the family network of political figures. Venezuelans (Diego Arria, Orlando Viera-Blanco, Henrique Capriles Radonski, Vanessa Neumann, etc.) who have supported the regime change campaign against the Venezuelan government.
Is it a way to silence the criticism of a Diego Arria or to keep a Henrique Capriles in line?
The premise of the partisan use of Citgo's money acquires greater force given that most of the NGOs and foundations that benefit from FSB donations do not have a systematic activity of delivering humanitarian goods in Venezuelan territory that justifies their selection to receive grants. Its base of operations, managers and volunteers are outside the national territory.
Precisely, most of these foundations are based in the United States and Colombia, and are especially linked to institutions that support the coup against Venezuela, such as the OAS and the United States Southern Command.
In this sense, the subsidies do not end in the effective help of Venezuelans in a situation of difficulty, but rather end up liquefying in countries clearly aligned on the confrontational agenda against Venezuela.
This turn towards the politicization of subsidies has fractured the efficient program of expensive medical treatments that had been operating, and benefiting hundreds of Venezuelans, before Guaidó's illegal takeover.
Most of the selected organizations do not only carry out humanitarian activities. Even the ones that stand out the most are those dedicated to “making the crisis visible”, collecting donations and raising information about the “humanitarian crisis”. In short, these are organizations dedicated to politics.
The current administration of Citgo reveals a scheme of "crony capitalism" , where family and personal connections represent an effective vehicle to achieve a privileged position in terms of obtaining resources and business facilities.
Under these inbred parameters and influence peddling, the Venezuelan bourgeoisie was born in the shadow of oil income in the first part of the 20th century. And with the takeover of Citgo, he has returned to his comfort zone while the country struggles daily to stay on its feet.
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