Dominican Republic owes $350 million: “Pay up”

Venezuela’s Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez reiterated this Wednesday that Dominican Republic owes $350 million for oil purchaseswhile demanding that the president of the Caribbean nation, Luis Abinader, pay “without any delay.”

“I will not miss a single comma in the amount of debt your country has with Venezuela: 350,212,925.48 million dollars. Your shameful surrender to the United States government does not erase that debt in any way. Get in the right place and pay Venezuela without delay“Rodriguez said in a message posted on Telegram.

The Minister of Petroleum also said that Abinader’s “tantrums” “blur the identity of the Dominican people, big brother” of Venezuela.

On Monday, Abinader said he had not imported “even half a gallon” of oil from Venezuela, in response to claims by Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello that the Caribbean nation owes his country $350 million in oil.

“We have not bought even half a gallon of oil from Venezuela since I became president,” Abinader said at his usual Monday press conference from the National Palace.

The governor’s statements were expanded by the president of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery (Refidomsa), Leonardo Aguilera, who assured that The last “significant” import by the country from Venezuela occurred on December 12, 2015.

After that, according to Aguilera, there was an import of diesel from Venezuela on February 20, 2017, “three years before we took over the government,” in 2020.

He revealed that “two years ago” the then president of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa), Asdrúbal Chávez, led an official delegation from his country that met with him and other Dominican officials, but that no agreement was reached in these meetingswithout specifying what the discussions were about.

Dominican Republic and Venezuela, a deteriorating relationship

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since Nicolás Maduro ordered on July 29 the “immediate” withdrawal of his diplomatic representatives from the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay, following criticism from these nations of the Venezuelan electoral process held the day before.

The tension between the Dominican Republic and Venezuela deepened even further when last week the United States government confiscated a plane in Dominican territory that, it claims, was illegally purchased for 13 million dollars through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Maduro.