Venezuela arrests former oil minister Tellechea

CARACAS (Reuters) -Venezuelan authorities have arrested former industry and oil minister Pedro Tellechea, Attorney General Tarek Saab said on Monday, the latest high-profile detention connected to management of Venezuela's sanctioned oil industry.

In a statement on Instagram, Saab said Tellechea had been arrested in the early hours of Sunday for alleged "grave crimes against the highest interests of the nation."

Tellechea, 48, was detained with his closest collaborators, the statement said, without naming them, adding that Tellechea handed over part of state oil firm PDVSA to a company controlled by U.S. intelligence services.

Tellechea had announced his resignation as industry minister in a social media post on Friday, citing health issues.

In August, President Nicolas Maduro conducted a large-scale cabinet shake-up that moved Tellechea from the oil ministry to the industry ministry and handed the country's key oil brief to Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.

Tellechea had been tasked with battling the state firm's endemic corruption and boosting its finances when he was appointed to head the company in January 2023. Two months later, his brief expanded to include the oil ministry.

A corruption probe into PDVSA led to a string of major arrests in April, including former oil minister Tareck El Aissami, who had once been one of Maduro's most influential officials.

Tellechea won worker support in his previous role as head of state petrochemical firm Pequiven by occasionally including Nutella, the hazelnut and chocolate spread which is a rare luxury in Venezuela, in monthly employee food boxes.

OPEC-member Venezuela is one of Latin America's major oil producing countries, but its crude output has fallen sharply during Maduro's more than decade in power due to under-investment as well as five years of U.S. sanctions on the industry.

The country's oil production has slightly rebounded in recent years.

Following Venezuela's July election that authorities say Maduro won but which the opposition says was a resounding victory for its candidate, some in the opposition have asked U.S. officials to amend or withdraw oil licenses that provide income to the government.

The Biden administration earlier this year temporarily drew down strict Trump-era oil sanctions on the back of an election deal between the government and the opposition. They were reimposed soon after, with the U.S. saying Maduro had failed to comply with the deal.

U.S. officials have said Washington is closely studying possible new sanctions.

(Reporting by Deisy BuitragoWriting by Sarah MorlandEditing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Bill Berkrot)