The Prosecutor’s Office investigates Guaidó for the “kidnapping” of assets abroad

The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office announced on Thursday a new investigation into the opposition leader Juan Guaidó, against whom, he said, 24 cases have already accumulated, and now there is the “kidnapping” of the country’s assets in abroad, because the Government of Nicolás Maduro has not been able to access them.

“This March 23 we have opened a criminal investigation on the occasion of the seizure of these resources of the Venezuelan State that could be used, among other purposes, for the attention of the covid-19 pandemic,” said the attorney general, Tarek Saab, in statements to public television VTV.

He remarked that Venezuela has 7,000 million dollars “kidnapped” in foreign banks by the economic sanctions of the United States and its “allies”, who do not recognize Maduro as head of state and who, instead, have given their support to Guaidó after he was proclaimed interim president after he was proclaimed in office in 2019.

“The main responsibility for this kidnapping that prevents the Venezuelan government from using these resources to meet health needs rests with those who have built the criminal fiction of the ‘interim government,'” he added.

The announcement of the investigation comes a day after the executive vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, indicated that she had requested an investigation against Guaidó for the “kidnapping” of the resources.

The attorney general also maintained that the retention of Venezuela’s assets abroad is a “crime against humanity” and recalled that he presented evidence of this in the International Criminal Court (ICC), to whom he reiterated the request to act.

According to Saab, the MP “has already opened 25 cases in which he is investigating” Guaidó.

“This subject is being investigated for the crimes of usurpation of functions, corruption, money laundering, continued public instigation to disobey the laws, aggravated embezzlement, fraudulent use of public funds, conspiracy with foreign governments, terrorism,” he said.

He also added the crimes of rebellion, trafficking of weapons of war, treason and association to commit a crime, and said that he has all “this list of facts condensed” in a file, for which he affirmed that the Public Ministry “will act.”

Guaidó has been investigated since 2019 after he proclaimed himself as interim president in a public square and among the most relevant events is the military uprising on April 30 of that same year.