Colombian President Gustavo Petro during his interview with Juanpis González on May 5, 2025.
Guacamaya, May 6, 2025. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has proposed that the state-owned energy company Ecopetrol purchase the fertilizer producer Monómeros, owned by Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA).
During his interview with social media content creator Juanpis González, Petro stated, “My intention is for Ecopetrol to buy it […] If Monómeros belongs to Ecopetrol, it would be 85% publicly owned.”
Petro suggested the purchase to ensure the continued supply of subsidized fertilizers for farmers in Colombia and Venezuela, amid the risk of privatization. “Currently, Monómeros’ urea sales guarantee productivity for millions of Venezuelan and Colombian families’ lands. It also ensures they have sufficient income for a dignified life,” he said.
Petro added that the company is under the supervision of Colombia’s Superintendency of Companies: “There is no board, just an intervention aimed at reorganizing it and possibly liquidating or selling it. And what I want is for Ecopetrol to buy it.“
Last November, Petro accused Venezuelan Industries Minister Alex Saab of seeking to privatize the company. According to the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, there was an agreement with a multinational to sell it for $300 million.
President Petro also accused Saab, a Colombian native, of being linked to drug trafficking.
Monómeros was previously under the control of the self-proclaimed “interim government” of Juan Guaidó, due to the hostility between then-President Iván Duque and Nicolás Maduro. The Venezuelan government has accused that administration of corruption and embezzlement in managing the company, particularly targeting Guaidó’s former ambassador in Bogotá, Tomás Guanipa.
In 2022, Diosdado Cabello—now Venezuela’s interior minister, then serving as first vice president of the PSUV—stated, “If Monómeros is investigated, Tomás Guanipa will end up in jail. No doubt about it. Tomás Guanipa even threw himself a birthday party with Monómeros’ money, for 2,000 people, when he was supposedly the ‘ambassador of Narnia’ in Colombia. It’s immoral.“
During the interim government, several foreign governments seized or froze Venezuelan state assets, including accounts of the Central Bank of Venezuela, gold reserves in the Bank of England, and the refining company Citgo. By selling the company, Caracas may be trying to prevent another confiscation if a new government hostile to Bogotá comes to power.
