Venezuela’s last oil czar imprisoned

The curse of PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela, a state company) has also taken the colonel away Pedro Tellechea in a similar way to that suffered by the majority of his predecessors. Agents from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence detained Tellechea over the weekend, just hours after he was replaced by Colombian magnate Alex Saab as head of the Ministry of Industry.

He only lasted a few weeks in this portfolio of the government of Nicolás Maduro, after he was replaced by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez from his key position as oil czar. It was precisely his investigations that led to the fall of the former vice president Tareck El Aissamivictim of a political purge within Chavismo after it was discovered that his in-laws had stolen 23 billion dollars from the oil business.

The Chavista Prosecutor’s Office confirmed yesterday an arrest that had been rumored since Saturday. The Public Ministry accuses Tellechea of ​​”serious crimes that threaten the highest interests of the nation, which include the delivery of the brain of PDVSA (automated command and control system) to a company controlled by the US Intelligence services, violating thus our national sovereignty”.

Tellechea justified his departure from the Ministry due to “health problems that require my immediate attention.” The praise of Nicolás Maduro, who elevated the colonel to the Chavista Olympus, in which only very consolidated leaders remain, is very far away. Although Tellechea had once defined himself as El Aissami’s “brother in life”, he was considered a token of Delcy Rodriguez.

El Aissami remains behind bars, the most powerful oil czar who has fallen into disgrace after losing his fight for power with Delcy Rodríguez and his brother Jorge, current president of the Chavista legislative body. For a year, between 2017 and 2018, the former president of PDVSA Nelson Martínez was also imprisoned, who died in prison. Eulogio del Pino was accused of corruption at the same time; He still remains in prison.

And Rafael Ramírez, as powerful as El Aissami during the time of Hugo Chávez, managed to go into European exile before being arrested. After finishing his time at PDVSA, he served as revolutionary ambassador to the United Nations.

Of seven ministers/presidents of PDVSA, only two have been saved, and one of them is Asdrúbal Chávez, cousin of the “supreme commander.”

Among those detained in the last few hours, later released, are businessmen of Arab origin linked to the Rodríguez brothers.