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A6 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 22 March 2023
Venezuela oil czar in surprise resignation amid graft probes

By REGINA GARCIA CANO the late President Hugo
Associated Press Chávez to launch numer-
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ous initiatives, including
— The man responsible for state-run food markets,
running Venezuela’s oil in- new public housing, free
dustry — the one that pays health clinics and educa-
for virtually everything in the tion programs.
troubled country, from sub- But a subsequent drop in
sidized food to ridiculously prices and government
cheap gas — has quit amid mismanagement, first un-
investigations into alleged der Chávez’s government
corruption among officials and then Maduro’s, ended
in various parts of the gov- the lavish spending. And so
ernment. began a complex crisis that
Tareck El Aissami’s an- has pushed millions into
nouncement Monday poverty and driven more
was shocking on multiple than 7 million Venezuela to
counts. He was seen as a migrate.
loyal ruling party member PDVSA’s mismanagement,
and considered a key fig- and more recently eco-
ure in the government’s nomic sanctions imposed
efforts to evade punishing by the U.S., caused a
international economic steady production decline,
sanctions. Venezuelan Petroleum Minister Tareck El Aissami arrives at the 4F military museum where late going from the 3.5 million
And he led the state oil President Hugo Chavez is buried, during the activities marking the 10th anniversary of Chavez’s barrels a day when Chávez
company PDVSA in a death, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 15, 2023. rose to power in 1999 to
Venezuelan business sec- Associated Press roughly 700,000 barrels a
tor widely considered to to continue perpetuating tion into unidentified pub- largest petroleum reserves. day last year.
be corrupt — in a country acts of corruption once lic officials in the oil indus- But officials are rarely held David Smilde, a Tulane Uni-
where embezzelment, brib- particular individuals have try, the justice system and accountable — a major ir- versity professor who has
ery, money laundering and been forced out of the po- some local governments. ritant to citizens, the major- conducted extensive re-
other wrongdoing are a litical scene.” Attorney General Tarek Wil- ity of whom live on $1.90 search on Venezuela, said
lifestyle. Hours after El Aissami re- liam Saab in a radio inter- a day, the international the moves by Maduro’s
“Obviously, they are giving vealed his resignation on view Monday said that at benchmark of extreme government are more than
it the patina of an anti-cor- Twitter, President Nicolás least a half dozen officials, poverty. “I assure you, even just an effort to clean its im-
ruption probe,” said Ryan Maduro called his govern- including people affiliated more so at this moment, age.
Berg, director of the Ameri- ment’s fight against corrup- with PDVSA, had been ar- when the country calls not “Arresting important figures
cas program at the Center tion “bitter” and “painful.” rested, and he expected only for justice but also for and accepting the resig-
for Strategic and Interna- He said he accepted the more to be detained. the strengthening of the nation of one of the most
tional Studies, a Washing- resignation “to facilitate Among those arrested is Jo- institutions, we will apply powerful ministers in a case
ton-based think tank. all the investigations that selit Ramirez, a cryptocur- the full weight of the law that involves $3 billion does
“Rule of law is not being should result in the establish- rency regulator who was against these individuals,” not improve your image,”
advanced here,” Berg ment of the truth, the pun- indicted in the U.S. along Saab said. he said. “It is probably be-
added. “This is really a ishment of the culprits, and with El Aissami on money Oil is Venezuela’s most im- cause the missing money
chance for the regime to justice in all these cases.” laundering charges in 2020. portant industry. A windfall actually has an important
sideline someone that it felt Venezuela’s National Anti- Corruption has long been of hundreds of billions in oil impact on a government
for some reason was a dan- Corruption Police last week rampant in Venezuela, dollars thanks to record- with serious budgetary
ger to it in the moment and announced an investiga- which sits atop the world’s high global prices allowed problems.”q

U.N.: Fresh gang violence in Haiti

leaves 187 dead in 11 days

than 150 others, the U.N. the U.N. in Haiti said. ready control an estimated
said Tuesday. The surge of violence in 60% of Port-au-Prince. They
The fresh wave of violence central Haiti has been also have been clashing in
recorded from Feb. 27 to largely blamed on a gang the central towns of Petite
March 9 in the capital, Port- called “Baz Gran Grif,” Riviere de l’Artibonite, Ver-
au-Prince, and in the cen- which roughly translates to rettes, Estere and Liancourt.
tral region of Artibonite also “Big Claw Crew.” Prime Minister Ariel Henry
has displaced hundreds of In addition, nearly 260 kid- signaled last week that he
people and forced farmers nappings have been re- is seeking to mobilize Haiti’s
to abandon fields as starva- ported since the start of military to help an under-
A parent, carrying his child after picking him up from school, tion worsens, officials said. the year, with people ab- resourced and under-
runs past police carrying out an operation against gangs in the “The situation is all the more ducted from their homes or staffed police department
Bel-Air area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 3, 2023.
Associated Press alarming for children, who public places, officials said. fight the unrelenting gang
are often subjected to all Gangs have grown more violence, which has forced
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) beyond have killed at least forms of armed violence, powerful since the July an increasing number of
— New clashes between 187 people in less than two including forced recruit- 2021 assassination of Presi- schools and businesses to
gangs in Haiti’s capital and weeks and injured more ment and sexual violence,” dent Jovenel Moïse, and al- shutter.q