Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has hired a former World Bank official and an attorney specializing in international finance to lobby the US government on his behalf, a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing revealed
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th February, 2019) Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has hired a former World Bank official and an attorney specializing in international finance to lobby the US government on his behalf, a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing revealed.
The US government recently seized billions of Dollars in Venezuelan oil assets to transfer to Guaido, who proclaimed himself the country's president on January 23. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused the United States of orchestrating a coup while Russia and several other countries continue to support Maduro as the country's only legitimate democratically-elected head of state.
"This amendment to registrant's Registration Statement is to give notice of a new foreign principal, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela under President Juan Guaido," the document said.
Attorneys Eli Whitney Debevoise and Arturo Caraballo from international law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP are listed as registrants in the filing, which is dated February 11 but was publicly posted by an advocacy group on Wednesday.
Debevoise served as the US Executive Director of the World Bank from 2007 to 2010.
Arnold & Porter had been representing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in court related to government debt restructuring matters, the Center for Responsive politics (CRP), a lobbyist watchdog group, said in a statement on Wednesday. Both lawyers are listed as working at the firm's Washington, DC office.
