Jesús Alfredo Vergara Betancourt is a businessman from Bolívar state in Venezuela, better known in the social circles of Guayana as the “King of Cabilla” or “Lalo.”
Jesús Vergara was born in Colombia on April 12, 1968, and holds Venezuelan identity card number 10.046.217. This sinister figure has been accused multiple times by workers in Venezuela’s state industries of allegedly forming and leading mafias that control the illegal trade of strategic materials and minerals in collusion with high-ranking officials within Venezuela’s corrupt military establishment. This includes top members of the chavista corruption ring such as General Rangel Gómez, Ángel Marcano, Juan Arias, and terrorist groups from Hezbollah led by Tareck El Aissami. Furthermore, he is the uncle of one of the favorite contractors for CVG, Andrés Hernández Vergara, maintaining a close business relationship with others in that clan like Jorge Infante Laya and Richard Antoun, as well as other entrepreneurs connected to chavismo, including brothers Jorge and Roberto Añez of Avior.
Vergara’s mafias operate in the shadows of corruption, controlling the trade of iron, cabillas, aluminum, gold, and coltan, among other materials. Companies like CVG, SIDOR, VENALUM, ALCASA, BAUXILUM, and ALUNASA have fallen into Vergara’s network through bribery and extortion. No transaction involving Vergara Group’s companies is free from alleged under-invoicing, triangulation, the use of shell companies, or fraudulent bids. Vergara also appears as the public face of Fundación Lala and Vergara Group, which are central to the widespread defraudation scheme prevailing in Guayana’s companies.
In December 2011, an article titled: “The True Aluminum Mafias in Venezuela” by Harrison Ashman accused Vergara of allegedly leading a cartel known as the “Narcos Alumineros” from the Orinoco Cartel. This cartel purportedly used aluminum as a front to legitimize capital. Ashman noted that Jesús Vergara allegedly used aluminum bars to conceal and smuggle drugs out of Venezuela. He claimed that Vergara boasted about operating from Guayana to maintain full control over his illicit activities in the area. Additionally, he accused him of owning a fleet of vessels supposedly used for drug transportation. According to Ashman, Vergara’s bank accounts reached over 200 million dollars deposited in tax havens. These serious allegations were never investigated.
When the scandal of Cilia Flores and Nicolás Maduro’s nephews exploded, it emerged that Jesús Vergara might have been the mysterious figure who allegedly provided the yacht used by them to export cocaine to the United States.
Will justice catch Jesús Vergara? They say crime doesn’t pay! Is that true? We’ll have to wait and see!