He minister of Energy and Minas, Joel Saints Echavarriasaid today that the debt that has the Republic Dominican with Venezuela for the purchase of oil, which amounts to 214.3 million dollars, “is not in arrears or in requirements of pay” and that the Government does not have any strategy to pay him.
Saints Echavarriaafter attending the opening ceremony of the Sixth Meeting of the Regional Committee of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), explained to the press that the purchase was made before 2015 and was made for 25 years, thus ensuring that a immediate payment.
About the strategy of payhe minister of Energy and Minas stated that this would be done when the deadline expires.
Along the same lines, the minister Industry, Trade and Mypimes, Victor Bisonó, also declared that “what happened with Venezuela It was something from 20 years ago, when Petrocaribe; it was not (in) this government that a loan was taken out for an oil financing project.”
Bisonó stressed that, initially, the The agreement was for a barter: “Remember that it was even to send them beans.”
The debt
On January 30, 2015, the Government Dominican Republic announced the purchase with sovereign bond resources of 98% of the debtwhich then amounted to 4,027 million dollars accumulated until December 2014, with the state company Petróleos de VenezuelaSociedad Anónima (Pdvsa), for the acquisition of fuels through the program Petrocaribe.
That transaction established that the Government Dominican Republic paid 1.933 billion dollars, instead of the 4.027 billion dollars that it had paid Venezuela. With an operation in its favor worth 2,094 million dollars.
However, a remnant remained debt which amounted to 244.2 million dollars. Of that amount between 2016 and 2020 only 29.9 million dollars were paid, according to Credit Public, which left an outstanding balance of $214.3 million.
From December 2020 to date the debt remains the same, indicating that no changes have been made. pass.
Since last week, President Luis Abinader and Venezuelan Minister of the Interior and Justice, Diosdado Cabello, have engaged in a series of exchanges of words in public speeches. All in the wake of the seizure of a plane belonging to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the Dominican Republic.
Cabello warned of the consequences of the decision taken by the Dominican president.
Yesterday, during a press conference, Cabello said that the Dominican Republic owes his country 350 million dollars for oil, in response to President Abinader’s statements that the local economy is superior to that of Venezuela.
Abinader, on the other hand, during yesterday’s LA Semanal with the Press, did not deny that the debt existed and limited himself to assuring that neither during his previous government nor during this one has oil been purchased from Venezuela. “We have not bought half a gallon of oil from Venezuela since I became president,” he emphasized.
Refidomsa President Leonardo Aguilera insisted that under Luis Abinader’s presidency, “not even half a gallon of oil” has been imported.
