Venezuela’s autocrat launches a massive corruption probe
Nicolás Maduro targets the decrepit state oil giant
Oil has been the backbone of Venezuela’s autocratic regimes for decades. According to Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, the country’s oil minister in the 1960s and one of the founders of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the fuel was not “black gold”, but the “devil’s excrement”. A corruption probe announced by the dictatorial government of President Nicolás Maduro on March 17th suggests there may still be some truth in that.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Oily business”
From the April 1st 2023 edition
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