Hair on the arrest of Pedro Tellechea

The Minister of the Interior of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, assured this Tuesday that The government of Nicolás Maduro will persecute those who commit “treason to the country” after referring to arrest of former oil czar Pedro Tellechea.

The 48-year-old Army colonel was arrested on Sunday accused of links to a “company controlled by the intelligence services” of the United States, the Prosecutor’s Office reported on Monday.

«The Venezuelan State absolutely condemns any action or act of corruption“, and not only condemns but will pursue to the last consequences any attempt to betray the country,” Cabello said at a press conference in Caracas.

“Pedro Tellechea handed over the brain of the company, all the administration of wells, contracts, operations to the same company that had it for the coup d’état in 2002,” he said.

And he added: «And without a doubt, handing over the brains, the operations, the administration, the contracts of the country’s main industry to the government of the United States implies an act of treason, it is not my place to accuse him, but I I see it like that.”

The crime of treason carries the maximum penalty in Venezuela of 30 years.

The Minister of the Interior and Justice, Diosdado Cabello revealed that the company that currently managed the brain of @PDVSA It is the same one that was hired in 2002 when they carried out the coup d’état against Commander Hugo Chávez.

It is one of the causes of the arrest of former Minister… pic.twitter.com/AXyIw3q3pV

— Madelein Garcia (@madeleintlSUR) October 22, 2024

What are they accusing Pedro Tellechea of?

Tellechea, who was Minister of Petroleum and president of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), was arrested along with “his most immediate collaborators” for, among other reasons, “the delivery” of PDVSA’s automated control system “to a company.” controlled by the US intelligence services,” said the Public Ministry.

The former minister, who previously headed the state petrochemical company, He was appointed president of PDVSA in January 2023 and Oil Minister in March with a promise to “clean up” the industry after a corruption scandal that led to the arrest of his predecessor, Tareck el Aissami.

After leaving the Oil Ministry in August, he was appointed Industry Minister. His successor in the energy portfolio was Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

During Maduro’s administration, re-elected for a third term amid allegations of fraud by the opposition, about 200 officials have been imprisonedamong them former ministers and former presidents of PDVSA.

Rafael Ramírez, Minister of Petroleum between 2002 and 2014 and former president of PDVSA from 2004 to 2014, is a fugitive in Italy, while Eulogio del Pino and Nelson Martínez, who also held these two positions, were arrested. Martínez died in prison.

On October 18, Maduro appointed Colombian businessman Alex Saab – accused of being his “front man” and released by the United States in December 2023 in a prisoner exchange – Minister of Industry.

Tellechea wrote on his social networks that he was leaving the government due to “health problems.”