Caracas (AFP)

Nicolas Maduro tries to take over the Venezuelan oil sector, on his knees, by appointing Minister of Petroleum Tareck El Aissami, a senior official "radically Chavist", sanctioned and wanted by the United States for drug trafficking.

This man of Nicolas Maduro's confidence will have the task of "restructuring and reorganizing" the petroleum sector at a time when crude prices are at their lowest, indicates the decree signed by the socialist president and published in the Official Journal on Monday.

By another decree issued the same day, the Head of State also appoints Asdrubal Chavez, a cousin of the late President Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), to head the public oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA ( PDVSA). Mr. Chavez chaired Citgo, the American subsidiary of PDVSA, between 2017 and 2018.

Since November 2017, the presidency of PDVSA and the Ministry of Petroleum have been in the hands of one man, General Manuel Quevedo.

Tareck El Aissami, vice president in charge of the Economy who calls himself "radically Chavist", is one of the pillars of the Venezuelan political system.

He has been subject to American sanctions since 2017, with the freezing of possible assets in the United States, in particular, for "drug trafficking". In addition, the American justice system indicted him for "narco-terrorism" last March, as did Nicolas Maduro and 13 other prominent Venezuelan officials and former officials.

Washington offers $ 10 million for information leading to the arrest of Tareck El Aissami, and $ 15 million for information leading to the capture of the head of state.

Under the impetus of Donald Trump, the American administration has gone crescendo in recent months in its sanctions against Nicolas Maduro, with the hope of pushing him to renounce the presidency of Venezuela which he occupies since 2013.

Washington, like almost sixty other capitals, recognizes the opponent Juan Guaido as interim president of the South American country.

- Fuel shortage -

This reorganization of the oil sector, which generates more than 90% of Venezuela's income, comes at a time when crude prices are at their lowest. The price of a Venezuelan barrel fell to less than 10 dollars (9.90 dollars) Friday, reaching a bottom seen since 1998 (9.38 dollars).

The oil production of the South American country is in free fall: from three million barrels per day in 2008, it passed to less than 700,000 barrels per day at present, according to the figures communicated by Caracas to OPEC .

The Chavista power blames this on the sanctions and the embargo on Venezuelan crude oil in force since April 2019. The Venezuelan opposition, for its part, believes that carelessness, corruption and lack of investment are at the root of the problem.

A serious shortage of petrol has affected the whole country since mid-March and the start of confinement decreed by Nicolas Maduro in an attempt to stem the coronavirus pandemic.

In the provinces but also in Caracas, kilometer lines of vehicles have formed in front of service stations while awaiting hypothetical fuel supplies.

More generally, Venezuela is facing the worst economic crisis in its recent history with runaway inflation (9,000% in 2019) that has severely impoverished its entire population, and shortages of medicines and everyday consumer goods.

© 2020 AFP