On Monday, the US State Department "was pleased to support" the seizure by Venezuelan opposition forces of three buildings in the United States belonging to the Venezuelan government, State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino said. Self-proclaimed Interim President of Venezuela Juan Guaido's envoy to Washington, Carlos Vecchio, told Reuters the opposition had gained control of two buildings in Washington, DC, belonging to the Venezuelan Defense Ministry as well as a consular building in New York.
Vecchio said they expected more such seizures "in the days to come."
The move follows a statement by Guaido on Saturday claiming "we do have control over Citgo," the US subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA, "and a license to continue the company's activities," Sputnik reported.
In late January, the US moved to block $7 billion in revenue from returning to Venezuela. Last Thursday, the US Treasury extended Citgo's license for another 18 months, enabling it to collect money for Guaido's opposition movement, "while prohibiting any benefit from flowing back to the illegitimate Maduro regime," the Treasury said.
Other assets owned by the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have also been seized since January 23, when just three days after Maduro began the second term he was elected to, Guaido, with US backing, declared himself president instead. In early February, the Bank of England froze $1.56 billion in gold assets owned by Caracas following a request by Guaido for London not to permit their repatriation.
Radio Sputnik's Loud and Clear spoke about the situation in Venezuela with Gloria La Riva, the director of the Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee, who just returned from a month-long stay in the country.
La Riva cautioned that the official story touted by Washington and the mainstream media about the outage might change, too. "There are already two disclosures after initial accusations, as you know: the New York Times showing that the accusation that Maduro ordered the burning of the humanitarian aid — so-called — trucks on the bridge on February 23, caused by the fascists who were lobbing Molotov cocktails."
"But there's also the admission that the drone attack was an assassination attempt… on August 4 of last year. US officials said, ‘Oh, he's trying to just claim an assassination attempt so that he can get more support.' Well, in fact was. It was based, the planning, the setting up of the drone and the bombs in the drone, in Colombia," she said.