The Attorney General of the Republic, Tarek William Saab, announced the arrest of Euripides Rasquide, manager of the Operational Coordination of the Orinoco Oil Strip; Oscar González, operational coordinator of the Strip – Improvement Division; Alexander González, superintendent of turn; Juan Algarín and Leonardo Meléndez, console operators; Leonard Bucarito, Carlos Indriago and José Ugas, platform console operators; Jesús Partidas, guard superintendent; Joel Paredes, cargo representative and José Barceló, senior console technician; involved in sabotage actions in the “José Antonio Anzoátegui” crude storage and shipment terminal.
In a press conference, from the headquarters of the Public Ministry, in Caracas, the official said the 11 officials were involved in two events, registered on June 14 and 17, respectively, which cost the country 14 million dollars in losses.
The first case, in which Euripides Rasquide and Oscar González are involved, was negligently committed when improperly planning the discharge and distribution of naphtha: “This led to the cessation of the supply of this additive to the companies operating in the Carabobo Division -Petromonagas and Petrosinovensa-, so they stopped producing 175,000 barrels of crude oil”, generating losses for 11,375,000 dollars.
In the second event, serious mistakes were made in loading two vessels: “Aries Sun, which was to load 400,000 barrels of Zuata 300 crude, and the Nerissa vessel that was to load 1,800,000 barrels of Merey crude”, explained the official.
The losses left by this second act of sabotage as a result of the pollution of the Merey oil, aboard the Nerissa, with Zuata 300, amount to 2,733,780 dollars for the reduction in the price of crude oil.
“Imagine such a monstrosity; a country that wishes – with the workers of PDVSA itself, our workers in all the factories and industries – to move forward and one manager acts in this way unpunished”.
With the arrest of this group of 11 officials increases to 90 the number of people apprehended for being involved in acts of corruption and sabotage in PDVSA, including 23 senior managers.
