The public and well-known pursuit of Venezuelan petroleum ships on the part of the Government of the United States (USA), has generated losses of up to 100.000 million dollars to Venezuela, as reported this Wednesday the minister for Foreign relations, Jorge Arreaza.
During an interview to the Brazilian Opera Mundi communication media, Arreaza told that the blockade imposed by the American management by means of coercive measurements, has deeply affected the Venezuelan oil industry, since this derives in difficulties of exporting and of distributing the black mineral around the world:
«We cannot import equipment and pieces of maintenance, nor the chemicals necessary for the refinement. When we are going to export they chase our ships», he expressed.
Also, he remembered that Venezuela possesses assets in the refineries of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), located in USA, assets that have been stolen and denied its repatriation from 2017, adding a loss for 30 billion dollars.
«If we include what we could not produce due to the blockade, easily we would reach losses for 100 billion dollars. These actions appear like an attempt of genocide, which we are trying to contain. The intention of the United States is to let the Venezuelan people die of famine until they could overthrow the government elected in a democratic process», denounced the chancellor.
Added to the topic of resources blocked to the nation, he added that there is the theft of cash and gold that add to an approximate of 10 billion dollars in international banks.
Last May 19, Venezuela initiated a demand to the Bank of England for theft of 31 tons of gold that it had in its safeguard. The Central Bank of Venezuela had requested to sell part of the ingots that the South American nation maintains in its vaults, to deliver the funds to the Program of United Nations for the Development (Pnud) and this way to attend to the situation of the pandemic in the country, which already reaches more than 1.200 infected.
During the interview, the Venezuelan chancellor also referred to the US threat against the Iranian government, after its sending of five oil tankers loaded with fuel to meet demand in the country, and as part of the cooperation between the sisterly nations:
«Iran publicly denounces that it has received threats and warnings from the United States for sending these ships to Venezuela. I hope that does not happen. Anyway, as soon as these ships enter Venezuelan territorial waters, they are escorted by boats and planes of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces», said Arreaza.
He added that these acts between Venezuela and Iran are part of a regular transaction between two sovereign states that are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC).
«There is no objection from the World Trade Organization. The countries of the region know that the only country that can try to meddle in this history is the United States, due to its imperialist craze», he stressed.
Resuming Dialogue:
The diplomat reiterated that the Venezuelan Government continues to work to recover the channels of dialogue that were taking place long before the failed mercenary incursion into the country:
“There is talk of that they want to support humanitarian aid through UN agencies. In this way, we have a level of dialogue. I hope that one day the United States will learn to respect the peoples of our Americas», he reiterated.