The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has taken note of the decision announced by the State Department of the United States to impose sanctions against our national company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), in the context of the unilateral US policy of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, known as the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISADA).
The Bolivarian government strongly condemns this decision which constitutes a hostile action outside of international law, in violation of the principles professed in the Charter of the United Nations.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its Revolution depend on a strong, independent, and sovereign oil industry, capable of operating and fulfilling its commitments on an ongoing basis; in the face of this aggression, Venezuela reaffirms that independence, that oil sovereignty.
The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is conducting a general assessment of the situation, in order to determine how far the sanctions affect the operations of our oil industry and thus also the 1.2 million barrels of oil that Venezuela daily supplies to the United States; based on this assessment, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will decide the most appropriate response to this imperialist aggression.
The Revolutionary Government calls on all the Venezuelan people, the working class, and especially the oil workers to remain alert and ready for action in defense of our PDVSA and the sacred sovereignty of the patria.
Caracas, 24 May 2011
The original communiqué “Gobierno Bolivariano repudia acción hostil de Estados Unidos contra Pdvsa” was published on the Web site of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com).
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