BOGOTA, Colombia 

The Venezuelan government on Tuesday rejected a US court decision endorsing the forced sale of CITGO Petroleum, the South American nation's key US oil asset, denouncing it as a "vulgar and barbaric dispossession" of a resource that belongs to the Venezuelan people.

The ruling allows the continuation of the auction process for the Houston-based oil refiner. CITGO, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA, is currently responsible for more than $20 billion in unpaid debt. This debt stems from expropriations initiated under the late President Hugo Chavez and later debt issuances during the administration of President Nicolas Maduro.

The most recent development occurred on Saturday when the company was awarded to a subsidiary of Elliott Investment Management.

The final sales have not been completed due to a protection license issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is set to expire on Dec. 20, following several renewals since 2019.

Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez delivered a statement on Tuesday, formally expressing the government's strong rejection of the decision. She labeled the judicial proceedings a "fraudulent process" and "a new episode in the multifaceted aggression being carried out by the United States against Venezuela."

Rodriguez argued that the Venezuelan state and PDVSA were "intentionally and illegally excluded" from the legal proceedings, effectively denying them the right to defend themselves under the "crude excuse" of the US government's refusal to recognize the Maduro administration. She asserted that the Maduro government "does not and will not recognize the sale of Citgo," and blamed the Venezuelan opposition, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, for the company's loss.

Since 2019, control over the PDVSA subsidiary has been held by a board appointed by the opposition, after Washington officially handed over management following its refusal to recognize President Nicolas Maduro.

The National Assembly, which is controlled by the ruling government party, responded by announcing on Tuesday that it will propose to the executive branch the revocation of citizenship for five opposition figures, the "main leaders" of the "gigantic theft of Citgo," following the court authorization of the sale last week.