U.S. legal advisors speaking to Venezuela just exchanged sides.
In a strange twist, the American lawyers have requested that a government judge postpone a case including a Canadian gold maker after Venezuelan restriction leader Juan Guaido asserted the nation’s between time presidency, however Nicolas Maduro stays in control.
The Washington law office Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer LLP previously took direction from Maduro’s government, yet that changed after U.S. President Donald Trump formally perceived Guaido on Jan. 23.
“President Guaido’s government has instructed us to file this motion,” Arnold & Porter said Tuesday in the filing with the federal court of appeals in Washington. Delays are necessary to allow the interim government “sufficient time to evaluate its position” for cases in U.S. courts, the firm said.
The filing was made in a case related to a demand by Rusoro Mining Ltd. for compensation tied to Venezuela’s confiscation of its property. Venezuela is engaged with no less than 18 cases in U.S. courts, records appear. Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state-owned oil organization, and its American unit, Citgo Petroleum Corp., are likewise associated with U.S. litigation.
In Tuesday’s filing, the first in the U.S. to address Venezuela’s disputed leadership emergency, the firm asked for a postponement of 120 days in the Rusoro case.
The interest for additional time pursues by a day the law office’s enlistment, under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, as a delegate of Venezuela under Guaido, supplanting a prior enrollment that didn’t indicate the name of the nation’s chief, as per U.S. Department of Justice records.
“Because the president has recognized President Guaido as the rightful representative of the Republic, only President Guaido or his representatives may assert the interests of the Republic in U.S. courts,” Arnold & Porter said in court papers.
The firm declined to make any further remark.
The case is Rusoro Mining Ltd. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, No. 18-07044, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit (Washington).
