The president of the National Assembly (AN), deputy Jorge Rodríguez, denounced this Sunday that the opposition in exile represented by Dinorah Figuera, illegally administers Venezuelan resources abroad to pay the salaries of former AN deputies from 2015 and from political activists from the Primero Justicia and Voluntad Popular parties.
This was confirmed by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, during an interview broadcast this Sunday by Venevisión.
“Dinorah Figuera said that she had constitutional powers to administer Venezuela's resources abroad, 364 million dollars. And what are they doing from there? They are paying the former legislators, whom they call health heroes, who are not doctors or nurses, they are political activists from the Primero Justicia and Voluntad Popular parties. We have the payroll, they are paid 1.000, 2.000 and up to 3.000 depending on the level of closeness with the leadership of that sector to these former deputies ”she sentenced.
Rodríguez emphasized that these individuals are being paid via cryptocurrency and cash with money they have stolen and that belongs to the Venezuelan people, from Citgo dividends, "from the $364 million they graciously gave to Dinorah Figuera."
"These gentlemen, whom I call the constitutional chamber of McDonald's in Fort Lauderdale (United States), appointed Dinora Figuera president of the interim government. This level of barbarism, absurd, which would be laughable if it weren't so dangerous, forces the State to protect itself and the assets that don't belong to Dinorah Figuera, but belong to Venezuela for education, healthcare, food, and salaries, which seeks to give the President tools to protect funds abroad," he emphasized.
Figuera was appointed by the Venezuelan right to manage Citgo. "This woman said she had constitutional powers and would manage Venezuela's resources abroad. This violates the Constitution, is illegal, a crime, a colossal theft. Citgo is Venezuela's largest asset abroad. This woman is registering $364 million in cash, and from there, they are paying former deputies and so-called health heroes who are nothing more than political activists from Primero Justicia and Voluntad Popular," he asserted.
“They are not content with everything that Guaidó stole, which is an impressive amount. In the annals of the political history of Venezuela, it will remain as the greatest compilation of theft that our history has ever known, because Guaidó without any kind of constitutional mechanisms, because he was not president at all, he administered a budget, they gave them resources every month," he said. .
The Domain Forfeiture Law will be applied
The president of the National Assembly stressed that the Asset Forfeiture Law is applicable to former deputies who are collecting money from the illegitimate appropriation of Citgo.
He assured that the Asset Forfeiture Law, recently approved by the National Parliament, will be applied to these former deputies and political activists, a legal instrument that allows the State to quickly recover all those ill-gotten assets by the corrupt in order to put them up for grabs. service of the people of Venezuela.
"A congressman who accepts a payment that isn't due to him for his work because he's already a former congressman is committing a crime, since he's violating the Asset Forfeiture Law. That money doesn't belong to him, and this law can undoubtedly be applied to him," he asserted.
In this sense, he recalled that the scope of the law is so that property, money and real estate ill-gotten by the corrupt can be quickly recovered and put at the service of its owner: the Venezuelan people.
It also reaffirmed the willingness of the Bolivarian Government to guarantee and protect the country's assets, through the Law for the Protection of Assets, Rights and Interests of the Republic and its Entities Abroad.
"They're white and they understand each other."
When asked if the opposition candidates should be measured in the primary elections, Rodríguez said: "They are white and they understand each other." In this sense, he explained that the opposition sectors have repeatedly said for some time that the elections in Venezuela are useless, that the National Electoral Council (CNE) was not a reliable arbitrator and that Maduro had to be removed by means of the force.
“They know that what they said about the Venezuelan electoral system was pure lies, all the hoaxes that they set up in Venezuela and abroad were completely false and that it obeyed a different plan, which was the insurrectionary plan that had its peak in the madness of Juan Guaidó swearing in himself in a square in eastern Caracas,” said the parliamentarian.
permanent dialogue
Regarding the dialogue in Venezuela, he stated that if there is something that can be boasted of and classified as a "glorious record", it is the ability of Hugo Chávez and later President Nicolás Maduro to convene permanent dialogue processes in very difficult moments of the republican life.
“There is an extremist sector that always attacks the dialogue processes, and in that extremism we include sectors of the North American administrations. "Hopefully sanity and the word determined to do it will take over again!" exclaimed Jorge Rodríguez, referring to the lack of word on the part of the opposition after failing to comply with the agreements signed with the National Government.
In relation to the negotiation reached to recover 3.200 million dollars from the Venezuelan State that were sequestered in banks around the world, Rodríguez stressed that the resources would be to invest in health, water, education, and generate strengths in the national electricity sector.
"It was signed to be invested. A few weeks after signing it in Mexico, Mr. James Story, former U.S. ambassador, sent a letter to the United Nations stating that the social fund the UN will administer cannot be opened because otherwise, the United States and its creditor banks will go after those funds. We said, and continue to say, that if we both pledged our word when we signed that document, then it must be kept. Hopefully, sanity will prevail again and that our word will be kept," he emphasized.
Does Jorge Rodríguez have presidential aspirations?
– I have my candidate and for that candidate there is everything I can, I will use all my intellectual capacity to be elected as President of the Republic.
When asked if he would be the campaign manager for that candidate, he replied that "it's still too early for that."
