2nd UPDATE: Venezuela Pres Says Top Ally Resigns On Bank Scandal
One of President Hugo Chavez’s top collaborators will resign from his post following the arrest of his brother as part of a brewing banking scandal.
Jesse Chacon, who currently serves as Science and Technology Minister, offered his resignation after his brother, Arne Chacon, turned himself in to the Venezuelan secret police on Saturday as part of a widening probe by prosecutors into the financial system.
Chavez moved Sunday to distance himself from the scandal and said that he had spoken directly with the government’s top prosecutor, Luisa Ortega, and requested that she move quickly to punish the people responsible with the failed banks.
Chavez also said that he told the Venezuelan secret police to swiftly imprison Arne Chacon, the president of Banco Real and Baninvest, which were seized by the government Friday.
Jesse Chacon will resign from his post because of the scandal, Chavez said during his weekly televised program.
“I’m very sorry that he is the brother of a minister, but we’re showing that no one here is untouchable,” he said.
Chavez said that he called the Venezuela secret police and told them that Arne Chacon “is the first one that I want to have arrested.”
Three executives from Banco Real CA, which was seized by the government Friday, are now behind bars, including Chacon, who headed the bank.
“How is it that Arne Chacon, who was born without anything, is now the president of a bank?,” Chavez said. “Our radars are failing,” he said.