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FILE - Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, left, speaks with Pedro Tellechea, the oil minister and president of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, during a May Day event in Caracas, Venezuela, May 1, 2023. CARACAS, Venezuela — 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 FridayAs 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.