Venezuelan authorities have arrested a top man in state oil firm PDVSA along with eight other executives at the company, according to Reuters.
Gustavo Malave, PDVSA’s boss for the western region, and the eight others were detained on Monday (September 4).
While no official confirmation or explanation of the arrests has been forthcoming, a series of corruption probes into the company are ongoing.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, many of them offshore, but the country has been in a prolonged downward spiral of economic stagnation and social and political unrest.
The US has deployed some economic sanctions on the South American nation since a Constituent Assembly election on July 30, which critics say paves the way to possible dictatorial rule by president Nicolas Maduro.
