Venezuela鈥檚 authoritarian regime is accused of embezzling hundreds of billions of dollars 鈥� much of it laundered in South Florida. Thanks to a group headed by Venezuelan expats, a bill is now in Congress that would create a fund to safeguard the portion of those assets seized by the U.S. government for Venezuela鈥檚 future reconstruction.
Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio co-introduced the , or PANA, last week along with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
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PANA would ensure that public Venezuelan money stolen by the regime 鈥� some of it now being frozen by U.S. courts 鈥� would go to a fund for rebuilding Venezuela and its democracy.
The bill is largely the result of efforts by the nonprofit Venezuelan Assets Recovery Initiative, . It鈥檚 led in part by Venezuelan expats like its president and co-founder, Maria Alejandra Marquez of Miami.
鈥淐urrently there are at least $1.5 billion frozen in at least 38 cases in U.S. courts against corrupt Venezuelan officials and their associates,鈥� Marquez said at a virtual press conference Wednesday.
But she pointed out that鈥檚 a fraction of the 鈥� mostly oil 鈥� wealth Venezuela鈥檚 authoritarian socialist regime is estimated to have plundered the past two decades.
鈥淪ince we started working two years ago, we realized this was going to be a long and complicated path," Marquez said, "because in the case of Venezuela we are talking about between $300 billion and $500 billion overall stolen.鈥�
Last week a U.S. judge sentenced a Miami money manager to almost four years in prison for helping the Venezuelan regime loot more than a billion dollars in oil revenue.
INRAV calls its campaign to create the fund .
