Tareck El Aissami

Venezuelan authorities have arrested a former oil minister accused of links to a firm controlled by U.S. intelligence services, the public prosecutor's office has announced. 

More than 40 people have been arrested in Venezuela in an anti-corruption drive sweep of state oil company PDVSA and other related government bodies, the prosecutor's office said on April 1.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami resigned on March 20 after prosecutors opened a corruption investigation into officials at the state oil company PDVSA.

Anti-corruption police on March 19 arrested two people closely linked to El Aissami: Top PDVSA official Antonio Perez Suarez, and Joselit Ramirez, who manages oil industry funds through cryptocurrencies.

This Jan. 14 photo shows melters work with gold during the production of 1 kg. gold bars in Ahlatc Metal Refinery in the central Anatolian city of Çorum. Venezuelan Minister of Industries and National Production Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah visited the rafinery on Jan. 16.

Venezuela formally launched its new oil-backed cryptocurrency on Tuesday in an unconventional bid to haul itself out of a deepening economic crisis, reported AFP.

The leftist Caracas government put 38.4 million units of the world's first state-backed digital currency, the Petro, on private pre-sale from the early hours.

Twelve people were killed in Caracas overnight following two days of mass street protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s beleaguered government.
Six people were also injured in the escalating violence, the public ministry said in a statement on Friday. The latest figures raised the total number of deaths during growing protests to 20 over the past three weeks.