Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has accepted the resignation of Tareck El Aissami, the country’s oil minister. El Aissami resigned to fully support an ongoing corruption probe that has led to the detention of several high-ranking officials including Mayor Pedro Hernandez and Joselit Ramirez, former head of Venezuela’s crypto-asset watchdog. The probe is focused on state-run company PDVSA and the judiciary, two entities supervised by the oil ministry. Maduro has committed to rooting out corruption and plans to restructure PDVSA, but has not provided details. The arrests are the latest in a series of crackdowns on corruption in Venezuela, a country that has been characterized as opaque by human rights groups. PDVSA suffered heavy losses last year due to tankers leaving without proper payment for cargo.
Maduro replaces oil minister and corrupt officials arrested by the police.
