Venezuela arrests a former oil czar and accuses him of working with the US to undermine the industry

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s top prosecutor on Monday announced the arrest of a former oil minister and accused him of working with the U.S. government to undermine the industry that drives the country’s economy.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced on Instagram the detention of Pedro Tellechea, who became Venezuela’s oil czar in January 2023 following the resignation of one of President Nicolás Maduro’s closest allies under a cloud of corruption allegations.

Saab said people in Tellechea’s inner circle were also detained, but he did not name them. He did not mention any specific charges.

Tellechea’s tenure as head of Venezuela’s most valuable industry ended in August, when Maduro reassigned his duties to the vice president and named him minister of industry and national production. Maduro on Friday replaced him by appointing a close ally who was pardoned by U.S. President Joe Biden last year as part of a prisoner swap.

As oil minister, Tellechea was responsible for the state-owned crude company Petróleos de Venezuela, commonly known as PDVSA. Saab accused Tellechea of “the delivery” of PDVSA’s automated command and control system “to a company controlled by the intelligence services of the U.S., thus violating all legal mechanisms and our national sovereignty.”

Saab described the command system as PDVSA’s “brain.” He did not offer any evidence to support the accusations.

Tellechea became oil minister following the resignation of Tareck El Aissami, who had helped Maduro and his government devise a structure to evade international economic sanctions. El Aissami left amid corruption investigations that eventually led to his arrest.

Maduro on Friday appointed Alex Saab as minister of industry and national production. The new Cabinet member returned to Venezuela a free man in December after being in custody since 2020, when authorities in Cape Verde arrested him on a U.S. warrant for money laundering charges. U.S. prosecutors long regarded him as a bag man for Maduro.