Venezuela’s chief prosecutor orders the arrest of the former head of the state oil company.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s chief prosecutor ordered the arrest of the former head of the state oil company Thursday, accusing him of bankrupting the downtrodden country’s primary source of income.
Officials also announced that Venezuela is expelling the Spanish ambassador, a move that further isolates the Latin American nation from the international community.
Rafael Ramirez, the former head of the PDVSA state oil company, is wanted on suspicion of money laundering and embezzlement, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said.
Ramirez recently resigned as Venezuela’s ambassador at the United Nations after falling out with Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro.
Saab said he is preparing to ask the international police agency Interpol to issue a “red alert” for Ramirez’s arrest. He called Ramirez the “father of corruption” at the oil company.
“You used to make millionaires of your family members,” Saab said on state television. “Mr. Ramirez, we inform you that you are cited by this ministry.”
Venezuela sits atop the world largest oil reserves, but production levels have crashed along with the economy in a deepening crisis after nearly two decades of mismanagement under socialist rule. The country is beset by hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine.
Ramirez’s associates have been a target of the Saab-led crackdown on corruption at the troubled PDVSA that began late last year. Dozens of officials have been arrested, including two former oil ministers and Ramirez’s cousin, Diego Salazar. Also arrested were officials who held top positions at Houston-based Citgo, which is Venezuelan-owned.
Salazar is jailed on suspicion of helping siphon off $1.6 billion to banks in the European principality of Andorra.
Ramirez, who ran PDVSA for more than a decade, resigned from his three-year U.N. post in early December on orders from Maduro. Both were close to the late President Hugo Chavez, but their rivalry became apparent last year when Ramirez began publishing articles critical of Maduro.
Ramirez has denied taking part in any corruption scheme and has not made his whereabouts public after leaving New York. Earlier in the day, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza announced that Venezuela was declaring Spanish Ambassador Jesus Silva Fernandez persona non grata.
Arreaza accused Spain of “imperialist and supremacist” meddling in its affairs.
The action came days after Spain and the other countries in the European Union imposed economic and travel sanctions on seven senior Venezuelan officials accused of human rights abuses or breaching the rule of law.
Venezuela was once a Spanish colony, and Spain remains a major trading partner for the region. Many Venezuelans have fled to Spain during their country’s deepening crisis.