National Assembly deputy Gaby Arellano called out attorney general Tarek William Saab over his apparent unwillingness to crack down on one of the country’s largest corruption scandals.
In messages posted on her Twitter account, Arellano wondered why Saab was not seeking the arrest of Raul Gorrin, a Venezuelan businessman implicated by U.S. court documents in a corruption scheme worth at least $1 billion.
Arellano’s criticism comes a day after Saab held a press conference in which he said that his office would seek the extradition of Raul’s partner-in-crime, Alejandro Andrade, who is currently in the United States. However, Saab did not mention any intention to go after Gorrin, who lives in Venezuela.
Below, Arellano’s tweet:
Tareck [sic] William Saab, why don’t you lick up Raul Gorrin who is in Venezuela instead of asking for Andrade’s extradition
Early Official Figures Show Extent of Economic Collapse
Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Venezuela that it could face sanctions from the organization if it did not provide it with official economic statistics by November 30. Short on cash, the Maduro regime appears to have yielded to the IMF’s request.
The Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) has not released official statistics the country’s economy, including measures like inflation, since 2016.
According to Reuters, the BCV is preparing to release economic markers as per the IMF’s request. One of the markers, “two sources familiar with the matter” say, is the extent to which the Venezuelan economy shrank last year, a figure which is reported to be 16.6%.
In an article published today, Reuters writes:
Preliminary data being prepared by technical experts shows that oil sector activity shrank 11.3 percent in 2017 from 2016 while the non-oil sector contracted 15.2 percent, said the sources, who asked not to be identified.
One of the sources told Reuters that the BCV is trying to “sweeten” the data that it plans to hand over to the IMF so as to make the scope of the country’s economic collapse more palatable.
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