Venezuela rejects illegal sale of Citgo shares in the U.S.

Caracas, October 13 (RHC)-- The Venezuelan government has rejected the order issued by the judge of the District of Delaware, Leonard Stark, on a "purported judicial sale" of the shares of the state-owned company Citgo Petroleum belonging to Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA).

The Presidential Commission Alí Rodríguez Araque issued a statement denouncing "the illegal order" issued by the U.S. judge, "which establishes a set of procedures for an alleged judicial sale of Citgo Petroleum's shares."

The organization formed by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in favor of the consolidation of the national oil industry emphasized that it "categorically rejects this reckless decision, vitiated by arbitrariness and veiled of partiality by the judge who issues it."

In this sense, it adds that the measure is aligned with Crystallex International Corp. (Crystallex), which responds to the hegemonic power of the US in "its multiform war and its pretension of shameless and indiscriminate plundering of the assets of the Venezuelan people."

Similarly, the Venezuelan government assured that the decision "in violation of international law, constitutes a new escalation of illegal maneuvers, in complicity with the usurpers Juan Guaidó and José Ignacio Hernández."

The authorities warned that these actions "set a dangerous precedent that could represent the beginning of a dark period, related to the vulnerable foreign investment scheme in U.S. territory."

Finally, the statement stresses that Venezuela "will never renounce the legitimate defense of its rights and reserves the pertinent actions before the international instances and mechanisms that assist it, with the firm commitment to rescue and preserve the patrimony of the Republic whose only owner is the Venezuelan people".