One of the new board members is Horacio Medina, a former PDVSA executive who led the 2002 strike in protest at Hugo Chávez’s policies.
By: Reuters
–
–
The Venezuelan National Assembly appointed three new members on Tuesday, June 30, to an ad hoc board of directors for the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, which controls some of the oil company’s most important assets abroad.
The measure represents the latest shake-up in the team that has the head of Parliament abroad, Juan Guaidó, who has said that part of his strategy is to defend the country’s assets abroad, including the American refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp, a subsidiary of PDVSA and which are behind creditors seeking to collect unpaid debts.
One of the new members of the ad-hoc board is Horacio Medina, a former PDVSA executive who led the 2002 strike in protest at Hugo Chávez’s policies, was among the thousands of experienced employees who were fired from the company by the strike.
The other two new members are Javier Linares, who currently sits on an ad hoc board of another PDVSA subsidiary responsible for partnerships with foreign companies, and Luis Vílchez, a former PDVSA project manager.
The appointment of the new members comes after some board members resigned a month ago, such as economist Alejandro Grisanti and oil consultant María Lizardo. Grisanti said in his resignation letter that he had to return to his professional activities after 15 months on the board, since his position was not compensated.
Guaidó’s main legal representative abroad, José Ignacio Hernández, also announced his resignation earlier this month and made an urgent call to restructure “the state’s judicial defense system.”
Maduro, in whose mandate there has been a collapse of the economy, calls Guaidó an American puppet who seeks to remove him from power and has said that the opposition is trying to “steal” assets like Citgo.
