Maduro blames Machado and Erik Prince for attacks against PDVSA

The government of Nicolás Maduro denounced on Monday that its oil industry suffered three “attacks” last week with million-dollar losses and blamed opposition leader María Corina Machado and former member of the US Navy SEAL Erik Prince.

Two attacks would have occurred at facilities of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), one in the east and the other at the country’s main refinery, in the west, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said in a statement to the press.

The official linked Prince by citing a publication by the US military contractor on his social network account X, in which he made reference to an explosion at an operations complex in Venezuela.

«Mr. Prince comes out saying that the complex has been attacked, that a gas pipeline exploded in the Muscar operations center in Monagas,” said Rodríguez, showing a photo of the message and later linking it to Machado, whom he called a “terrorist.”«.

He did not give details about the connection that, he maintains, exists between Prince and the opposition leader, who is in hiding after denouncing fraud in the July presidential elections. Nicolás Maduro has said that he left the country, which she denies.

“All these attacks, as the vice president has said, have a first and last name, they are being planned from Colombia, behind these attacks is the world of drug trafficking and paramilitary that today surrounds the ‘paraca’ queen María Corina Machado,” Maduro said later on his weekly television show.

“She is behind all these planes, she left (the country) to concentrate all her evil, all her fascism, to harm Venezuela,” said the leftist president.

Rodríguez said that the attacks will affect the oil industry, petrochemicals and steel companies, as well as the electrical system. The state of Nueva Esparta (north), where the tourist island of Margarita is located, is suffering prolonged power outages.

Oil and electrical installations usually have a strong military presence and the leftist government usually denounces attacks for which it blames the opposition.

The most affected facility, according to the vice president, was the Muscar complex, responsible for distributing 80% of the country’s gas.

An explosion occurred there on September 11 that injured 5 workers and for which 11 people have been arrested.

There are losses of more than 240 million dollars, according to the government’s balance sheet.

«These events have had a direct economic impact (…). In the case of PDVSA, oil and gasthe impact has been 157.8 million dollars; in the petrochemical industry, almost 56 million dollars; in basic companies (steel), almost 30 million dollars,” Rodríguez pointed out.