Venezuelan oil minister resigns amid corruption crackdown


Briefly: Venezuela’s oil minister, Tareck El Aissami, resigned suddenly on Monday amid accusations of corruption at the state oil firm PDVSA. Later that evening, President Nicolás Maduro went on TV to announce a corruption crackdown.

But experts query Maduro’s motives. El Aissami is considered the architect of the sanctions evasion scheme that has helped keep Venezuela’s oil sector afloat, while lining the pockets of top officials. So the term “firing El Aissami for corruption” is a little like “firing LeBron James for basketball”.

Instead, El Aissami’s ouster was probably an olive branch to the US. Washington might be more inclined to lift sanctions on PDVSA now that El Aissami, a designated drug trafficker with a $10M bounty on his head, has stepped down.

Intrigue’s take: In his speech on Monday, Maduro urged Venezuelans to “go on the offensive against the corrupt, the bandits, the delinquents, the criminals.”

They might start at the top. In his decade in power, 7 million Venezuelans have fled the country, the GDP per capita has dropped by 87%, and oil output has collapsed from 3.5 million barrels per day in 1999 to 700,000 last year.

Meanwhile, the US has sanctioned Maduro’s sonstepsons and other confidants for their alleged involvement in money laundering, bribery and beyond.

Also worth noting:

Latest Author Articles
Canada’s Trudeau resigns as PM, to stay on until new leader chosen

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has resigned as Liberal Party leader and will end his term as PM as soon as an internal party successor has been named, Trudeau told the press at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on Monday morning.  Trudeau’s resignation ends his nine-year term in power, marked by an open-revolt ending with numerous […]

6 January, 2025
Biden blocks Nippon Steel deal

With less than two weeks in US President Joe Biden’s term, the outgoing president blocked Japan’s Nippon Steel’s proposed $14.9B purchase of US Steel, citing national security and supply chain concerns.

3 January, 2025
To open or not: the embassy question

With the Assad regime gone and rebel rule slowly consolidating across Syria, governments around the world are weighing up whether — and if so, how — to resume contact with the emerging new Syrian leadership. Some capitals are diving chin-first right into the shallow end: Others have been a little more cautious: Stay on top […]

20 December, 2024
Trump’s ambassadorial line-up

The world now greeting Trump 2.0 is much messier than the one awaiting him back in 2017: more distracted allies, more volatile foes, and more lacklustre Marvel sequels. So let’s get you up to speed on what Trump’s initial ambassadorial picks might mean for the next four years: Trump wants former senator for Georgia and […]

16 December, 2024