Canada sanctions Venezuela: will it help?

5 years ago By Alek Boyd

Canada announced a new set of sanctions on 43 individuals two days ago (see below). There's a few interesting names in there, folk linked to chavista repressive apparatus, First Lady, armed forces and intelligence, Venezuela's Treasury, judiciary, telecoms (CONATEL), mining, governors -one Rafael Lacava associated to Boston Group... The ones this site is interested the most are those linked to PDVSA. That's where Reinaldo Muñoz Pedroza slots in.

Muñoz Pedroza is the illegitimate interim prosecutor -hand picked by Cilia Flores- that "approved" Nelson Martinez's and David Boies' attempt to get billions of dollars from Helsinge, Trafigura, Glencore, Vitol, Lukoil et al, through PDVSA Litigation Trust's farcical lawsuit in Florida. PDVSA's CEO Manuel Quevedo -also in list of sanctioned- went with Pedroza / Boies that logically has been dismissed.

Worringly, a criminal claim -filed in Switzerland also with Muñoz Pedrosa's "approval", linked to Boies and potentially very lucrative- is progressing along. The concern here is that Juan Guaido's equally hand picked interim prosecutor (Ignacio Hernandez) was hired as an expert in Florida by Helsinge, Trafigura, Glencore et al.

The previous prosecutor (Muñoz Pedroza) conspired to deprive PDVSA of billions defrauded by defendants, though use of a legal subterfuge (litigation trust) and granting rights to 66% of potential proceeds to Boies and co. The current prosecutor (Hernandez) did not see a problem of acting as legal expert for those who deprived PDVSA of billions.

It is great news that such obscure characters of Venezuela's corrupt underworld are being sanctioned, specially by a country like Canada. The problem does not seem to be anywhere near solving though, as replacements are equally questionable.

Backgrounder

Effective immediately, Canada is imposing further sanctions against members of the Maduro regime and those closest to it.

Canadian measures

The Special Economic Measures (Venezuela) Regulations impose asset freezes and dealings prohibitions on listed persons by prohibiting persons in Canada and Canadians outside of Canada from dealing in any property of these individuals or providing financial or related services to them.

The specific prohibitions are set out in the Regulations.

The names of the individuals targeted by these Regulations are: