Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

New Venezuela opposition leader confident U.S. will protect assets

Published 01/27/2023, 04:46 PM
Updated 01/27/2023, 04:52 PM
© Reuters. Exiled Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Dinorah Figuera attends an interview with Reuters in Madrid, Spain, January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura

© Reuters. Exiled Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Dinorah Figuera attends an interview with Reuters in Madrid, Spain, January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura

By Corina Pons

MADRID (Reuters) - The new president of Venezuela's opposition legislature is confident the United States will back the body by continuing to protect foreign assets like oil refiner Citgo Petroleum from creditors, she said on Friday.

Dinorah Figuera, a 61-year-old doctor from the Primero Justicia party, was chosen to lead the opposition's national assembly earlier this month as it prepares to pick a presidential candidate and pushes for renewed talks with the government.

Figuera, who lives in exile in Spain, told Reuters in an interview that the assembly's new triumvirate of women leaders will be able to confront President Nicolas Maduro, whom the United States and other countries consider a dictator, and protect assets like Citgo and nearly $2 billion in gold at the Bank of England from creditors.

Maduro has accused the opposition of working with the United States and other countries to stage coups against him.

This month the U.S. Treasury Department extended protection for Citgo until April and Figuera said it could be renewed.

"The United States supports the National Assembly, England supports the National Assembly ... we have had conversations and that (Citgo) licence can be renewed for more months," Figuera said.

Venezuela owes more than $60 billion to creditors and is facing legal judgements over nationalizations and delayed bond payments.

Opposition lawmakers have appointed a committee to manage assets abroad.

Venezuela traditionally has only one legislature, but currently has two parallel bodies - one of government-allied lawmakers and another for the opposition.

Figuera, who moved to Spain in 2018, aims to "stitch together" the unity of the opposition, after sometimes fierce infighting between its largest parties.

As with other opposition lawmakers, she does not receive a salary for her role.

She is in the process of transferring her medical credentials so cannot yet practice as a doctor and makes ends meet by caring for an 87-year-old diabetic woman in Valencia, in southern Spain.

"I have received threats sent by people who know or have people near to Madurismo," she said, referencing Maduro's allies, and adding police confiscated the apartment and a car she still owned in Venezuela a few hours after she was appointed.

© Reuters. Exiled Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Dinorah Figuera attends an interview with Reuters in Madrid, Spain, January 27, 2023. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura

Though she lost her sister and mother to COVID-19 after leaving Venezuela, she still hopes to return one day.

"I have faith that we are going to move forward," she said. "Dictatorships are not eternal."

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.