In a move which appeared to send a message to the administration of President Nicholas Maduro that Washington remains steadfast in the imposition of sanctions against Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), the United States has charged ten persons, one of them a Venezuelan military officer, of helping Caracas to circumvent the US sanctions. A report earlier this week by the online energy news source, RIGZONE, revealed that the ten persons charged are accused of exporting “millions of dollars’ worth of aircraft parts” to service the aircraft fleet of aircraft owned by Petrobras in breach of the sanctions imposed on Caracas by Washington back in 2019. One of the ten arrested persons was, reportedly, PDVSA’S Head of Logistics, Procurement and Warehousing who was nabbed by the US authorities upon his arrival at the Miami International Airport two Fridays ago. Another of the ten (10) persons arrested is reportedly a Colonel in Venezuela’s military,
The arrested Venezuelans had reportedly devised a scheme to circumvent the US sanctions to reportedly procure aircraft parts, including what the charge said were Honeywell Turbofan Engines, from the United States “to service PDVSA’s aircraft fleet in Venezuela, in violation of U.S. sanctions and export controls,” according to the US Department of Justice. The DOJ said, “To carry out this scheme,” the accused Venezuelans “concealed from U.S. companies that the goods were destined for Venezuela and PDVSA by exporting them to third parties in other countries, including Novax Group SA (Novax), a Costa Rican company, and Aerofalcon SL (Aerofalco), a Spanish company.”
The arrest of the individuals on charges associated to circumvent the United States sanctions sends a signal that a measured relaxation of sanctions to allow the beleaguered PDVSA to function in strictly limited ways in terms of producing and marketing Venezuela’s oil is a far cry from a ‘business as usual’ posture on the part of Washington. The United States continues to press the issue of free and transparent elections in Venezuela when the poll is held later this year. Political tensions between Washington and Caracas are likely to ‘heat up’ further as the timeline for the poll becomes shorter. Inevitably, the arrest of the Venezuelan officials is likely to raise questions as to whether Washington will still be prepared to allow for the effective execution of the Dragon Gas Project, a proposed fossil gas pipeline running offshore between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, which, up until recently, had been stalled on account of Washington’s objection to seeing the project go ahead.
