Weekly Report - 02 May 2024 (WR-24-17)

The president of Venezuela’s national assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, this week called for the maximum 30-year prison sentence to be handed down to “the traitor” Tareck El Aissami, the recently arrested former oil minister, who stands accused of involvement in a corruption network in the state-run oil firm Pdvsa. No fewer than 66 people have now been arrested in connection with the alleged corruption scheme, which the attorney general, Tarek William Saab, has conflated with a purported conspiracy, including prominent members of the opposition and US authorities, to crash the economy and topple President Nicolás Maduro.