Exiled Venezuela Prosecutor Says Maduro War on Graft Is a Farce

Venezuela’s former chief prosecutor says the government’s anti-corruption crackdown is a facade to cover a power struggle among the ruling party elite. “This is no purge” of corrupt officials, Luisa Ortega said in an interview. “This is a fight for territory.” President Nicolas Maduro’s administration has ramped-up arrests at state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela SA, netting dozens of top executives and two former ministers. Ortega, who was ousted from her post as the nation’s top prosecutor in August, says Maduro and other senior members of the administration have long been aware of widespread graft at the company known as PDVSA and other state institutions, but suppressed investigations to protect political allies. More…