Venezuela opposition extends committee to protect overseas assets by one year

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition politicians on Friday extended the functions of a committee administering the country's overseas assets, which replaced the now-eliminated interim government, for 12 more months.

Via this legal reform, the opposition National Assembly will maintain its function to safeguard Venezuela's assets abroad, also because it is the body recognized by the United States, opposition politicians - who oppose the government of President Nicolas Maduro - added.

Venezuela's assets held abroad include bank accounts, gold held in the Bank of England, and oil refiner Citgo Petroleum, a subsidiary of state-owned PDVSA, which is protected by the United States government from being auctioned to pay creditor debts until Jan. 18.

"We're committed to being coherent in the fight to completely escape and leave behind the entire system of what the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro's regime signifies," Dinorah Figuera, president of the opposition National Assembly, said from Spain, where she has lived in exile for years.

The opposition national assembly has appointed a committee to govern the country's foreign assets since it voted to remove interim President Juan Guaido and dissolve his government in 2022.

The opposition national assembly's session was transmitted over Zoom, which it says is due to the majority of its members living in exile due to harassment from the government. The meeting of the ruling party-dominated assembly in Venezuela took place in central Caracas.

The ruling party dominated National Assembly re-elected Jorge Rodriguez, the government's chief negotiator with opposition politicians, as its president during its meeting.

The opposition is acting against an agreement reached between Venezuela's government and opposing politicians in Barbados last year, Rodriguez said in the National Assembly's building in Caracas.

"If they continue to meddle with resources ... that belong to Venezuela, they violate the Barbados agreements and at the same time they are of course committing a crime defined in our criminal code," Rodriguez said.

Venezuela's government and opposition politicians agreed to electoral guarantees for 2024 presidential elections during the Barbados meeting in October.

In March 2023, the United States Treasury Department granted a license to opposition National Assembly for governing PDVSA or carrying out debt settlement agreements, as well as to designate individuals or entities for negotiations.

In August, the opposition National Assembly extended the validity of Venezuelan and PDVSA bonds until 2028 to reduce the risks of further lawsuits and provide space to renegotiate with bondholders. The measure was subsequently validated by a court in New York.

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera, Deisy Buitrago and Mayela Armas; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Matthew Lewis)