President Nicolás Maduro stated during his program Maduro Live de Repente (Maduro Live – Suddenly) that the fugitive far-right wing opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, received more than 700 million dollars from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) between 2017 and 2019.
These funds, supposedly intended for humanitarian aid and development projects, never fulfilled their initial purpose, as revealed by the declassified documents cited by the president.
Diverted funds and phantom projects:
In the words of President Maduro, the documents show that 260 million dollars were allocated for humanitarian assistance and 247 million for development projects, without these resources being executed in a transparent manner.
In addition, the delivery of 200 million dollars to a fund called the “Development Fund” is mentioned, whose final destination remains in question.
“There are more than 700 million. The documents detail that Guaidó claimed that he had to take humanitarian aid away from NGOs supported by the UN to give it only to those he designated,” said the Venezuelan president.
CITGO: The scandal behind the $5 billion:
The head of state also denounced the irregular handling of USAID funds. He also pointed out that the Venezuelan opposition, through CITGO —the PDVSA subsidiary seized in the United States—, generated more than 5 billion dollars in profits that were not delivered to the country in the last five years. The President directly accused figures of fascism such as Leopoldo López, Julio Borges and Juan Guaidó himself of being involved in this embezzlement:
“This figure is added to what was obtained from the theft of CITGO, a company that has accumulated more than 5 billion dollars in unpaid profits in the last five years,” said the President.
USAID under scrutiny: Financing corruption?:
The Dignitary questioned the role of USAID in financing what he called “acts of corruption” linked to the Venezuelan opposition. President Maduro emphasized that American taxpayers are unaware that their taxes are used to support shady operations abroad.
“In time, everything will come to light,” said the President, who also referred to instructions given to USAID employees in Washington not to show up for work, linking this measure with the recent declassification of documents on the case.
