The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela strongly rejected the decision of a US court that endorses the forced sale of CITGO Petroleum, calling it a "vulgar and barbaric plundering" of a strategic asset of the Venezuelan people.

In a statement read by Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez , it was denounced that this act constitutes a “fraudulent process” and a “new episode in the multifaceted aggression being waged by the United States against Venezuela .” The official asserted that PDVSA and the Venezuelan state “ were intentionally and illegally excluded from the process,” denied the right to a defense under the “crude excuse” of not recognizing the legitimate government.

The official statement indicates that this dispossession was carried out “in complicity” with figures from the radical opposition such as María Corina Machado, Edmundo González Urrutia, Juan Guaidó, Julio Borges, Carlos Vecchio, and José Ignacio Hernández. It identifies these individuals as part of an “organized crime group” that, since the self-proclaimed National Assembly of 2015, attempted to usurp the country's representation, leaving it defenseless against “blatant theft.”

“Venezuela reiterates that it does not and will not recognize the forced sale of CITGO ,” stated Rodríguez, a move carried out in “ flagrant disregard ” for legal and economic guarantees . The government reaffirmed that it will adopt “all measures at its disposal” to bring to justice, including international accountability, all those who promoted and carried out this plunder.

“This case will go down in history as clear and pathetic evidence that foreign investments are neither respected nor guaranteed in the territory of the United States of America,” the statement concluded, assuring that the Venezuelan people will give a “historic lesson” to those who have betrayed the homeland.

The fraudulent authorization of the sale of CITGO

In an act that solidifies one of the largest expropriations of the modern era, a U.S. federal judge has approved the forced sale of CITGO Petroleum , the main international subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). This ruling, issued by Judge Leonard P. Stark in Delaware, represents the culmination of a long and politically charged legal process aimed at stripping the Venezuelan state of a strategic asset valued at billions of dollars.

The transaction, approved for $5.9 billion in favor of Amber Energy, constitutes a true " robbery " according to expert analysis, given that the company's real value is between $11 billion and $13 billion. Professor and analyst Werther Sandoval describes it bluntly: "The collusion, the coven, the legal-political alliance of the US judiciary with the puppet government and the vulture creditors... will steal CITGO from PDVSA with the swindle of collecting a debt that is not PDVSA's, but rather that of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela . "

The mechanism for this dispossession was set in motion after the Trump administration's illegitimate recognition of a parallel government in Venezuela in 2019. Sandoval explains that it was then that "the sham [Guaidó's government] ballooned [the debt] to $23.6 billion to make it unpayable and thereby exacerbate the creditors' financial woes in order to sue and seize Citgo . " This strategy violated the capitalist legal principle of the alter ego or corporate veil, which protects a subsidiary from the debts of its parent company.

As the analysis details, “ prior to Guaidó’s usurpation, CITGO was never over-indebted… Venezuela, even up until 2019, before the self-proclamation, fully complied with its payment obligations . ” The illegal takeover of the board of directors by figures aligned with the opposition, such as Luisa Palacios and Carlos Jordá, paved the way for vulture creditors to file massive lawsuits in US courts.

The dual objective

The ambition surrounding CITGO is not new. Sandoval recalls historical warnings, such as those from former President Carlos Andrés Pérez, that owning a refinery wholly in the U.S. made it "vulnerable and susceptible to protectionist measures ." The dual objective was, on the one hand, to strangle a vital source of foreign currency for the Bolivarian nation and, on the other, to seize a profitable industrial complex that for decades has disproportionately benefited the U.S. economy.

“Citgo was acquired to ship Venezuelan oil at below-market prices, at a discount, which results in the delivery of large sums in taxes to the US treasury, at the expense of lower dividends and almost no tax payments to the Venezuelan state ,” Sandoval points out. Its total control was a key element in the multidimensional economic war against Venezuela.

This ruling, which the Bolivarian Government has vehemently denounced as a daylight robbery , will have serious repercussions. Sandoval warns that "any relationship or agreement between the US and Venezuela will be tainted by the precedent of the CITGO theft, a criminal act that will always be present... generating distrust and raising the costs of any bilateral negotiations . "

The Venezuelan state has made it clear that it will exhaust all legal avenues at the international level to recover what rightfully belongs to it. The sale, which still requires regulatory approvals and is not expected to be finalized until 2026 , stands as a monument to the double standards and lawfare employed by the empire and its local collaborators.

Sources from the US -> https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/amber-energy-plans-hold-citgo-refineries-after-takeover-2025-12-01/