Venezuela‘s government has appointed former military officer and ex–electricity minister Luis Alfredo Motta Domínguez to a senior oversight post, despite an active U.S. indictment and a standing reward offer for his arrest tied to money-laundering charges.
State-linked media reported that Motta Domínguez was named vice minister for government management monitoring under the authority of interim leader Delcy Rodríguez, with the appointment formalized by decree on February 9 as part of a broader administrative restructuring.
The U.S. Department of State offered “a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Luis Alfredo Motta Dominguez,” first published back on September 30, 2020. Back then, the US government identified him as a former major general in the Venezuelan National Guard and former minister of electricity who was indicted in June 2019 in the Southern District of Florida for “conspiracy to commit money laundering and laundering of monetary instruments.”
According to the indictment cited in the State Department notice, Motta Domínguez and a co-conspirator allegedly awarded more than $60 million in contracts from the state electricity company to three Florida-based firms in exchange for bribes.
Prosecutors alleged that proceeds from the scheme were funneled through U.S. financial institutions using accounts in South Florida. He was sanctioned the same day by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control under an executive order targeting individuals contributing to the situation in Venezuela.
Motta Domínguez’s return to government coincides with renewed scrutiny of his tenure overseeing Venezuela’s electricity system, which experienced one of the worst infrastructure crises in the country’s modern history. In March 2019, a nationwide blackout lasting days disrupted hospitals, food distribution and oil exports.
His appointment also comes as Washington signals openness to renewed foreign energy activity in Venezuela. In recent weeks, the United States has allowed major oil companies to expand operations and authorized new investments, following initial oil transactions worth about $500 million and policy changes aimed at attracting foreign capital to Venezuela’s energy sector.
Originally published on Latin Times
