Pedro León Rodríguez, former director of the Orinoco Oil Belt in Venezuela, surrounded himself with various individuals, allowing them to become top-tier contractors for Venezuela’s main oil reservoir. He consistently favored them with lucrative, rigged contracts that ultimately harmed PDVSA and its joint ventures. Some of these individuals included Nabetse del Valle Vásquez Gómez, Nelson Bustamante Abidar, and the Pérez Abad brothers, who have fluctuated between their own businesses and high-level positions within the Chavista administration.
Nabetse Vásquez is identified as a “niece,” “foster sister,” or “front” of Pedro León Rodríguez, despite the absence of shared last names.
Vásquez was married to Pedro Luis García Ramos, who transitioned from being a government official to a contractor in the Venezuelan oil industry. Gradually, Vásquez and García infiltrated the contracts of the Orinoco Oil Belt, partnering with other contractors like the Urbanos Fermín brothers and Nelson Bustamante Abidar in contracts such as the transportation of petroleum coke, a byproduct stored at the José Antonio Anzoátegui Industrial Complex in eastern Venezuela, according to a report from expresa.se.
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Nabetse Vásquez and Pedro García Ramos were accused in Venezuela in 2016 of drug trafficking after agents from the Bolivarian National Guard discovered two kilograms of cocaine on the yacht OPEN BAR, registered D-L9517-AF, owned by Vásquez and García.
Accusation in 2016 in Venezu… by Presents 360
Nabetse Del Valle Vásquez Gómez’s rapid fortune enabled her to acquire property in the Urbanization Las Villas, in Lechería, eastern Venezuela, one of the most luxurious condominiums in the entire South American country.
Vásquez Gómez also became a partner of Gustavo Ernesto Mendiri Borges, shareholder of the insurance company Zuma Seguros and former president of the Marinos de Anzoátegui basketball team. For contracts in the Venezuelan oil industry, they used companies registered in the Dominican Republic as fronts: Inversiones Mendiri Vásquez and Mendiri Vásquez Petróleo RD.
Gustavo Ernesto Mendiri Borges
Sports Deals in the Dominican Republic
The professional basketball franchises Soles de Santo Domingo Este from the Dominican Republic and Marinos de Anzoátegui from Venezuela announced in 2015 a strengthening of bilateral relations for their “growth and development.”
Pedro Chalas (son), president of Soles, stated that “we are forging emotional and professional bonds with this professional basketball team from Venezuela with hopes of gaining managerial, administrative, and technical experiences to help us grow in our National Basketball League LNB-BanReservas and reach our dream of a championship title.”
“They know how to win. They are the most decorated in the entire history of professional basketball in that South American nation with 11 titles, four of them achieved in the last five years: 2011-12, 14 and 15, which was the most recent,” Chalas highlighted.
The Anzoátegui team, also known as “El Acorazado Oriental,” defeated the Guaros de Lara in the final series, 4-1, in a fifth game scored at 85-81, under the leadership of Argentine coach Fernando Duró, who secured his first title in Venezuela.
He emphasized that they would make the best use of this approach to learn from their experience.
A delegation from the Marinos de Anzoátegui, led by their president Gustavo Mendiri and his partner “Nabe Vásquez” – as Nabetse del Valle Vásquez Gómez refers to herself – visited the Dominican Republic in 2015 for a courtesy meeting with Soles SDE.
Pedro Chalas (son), Nabetse del Valle Vásquez Gómez and Gustavo Mendiri Borges
It was to the Dominican Republic that Pedro León Rodríguez, former executive director of the Orinoco Oil Belt and related to Nabetse Vásquez Gómez, fled in 2017 when he was sought by Venezuelan authorities for corruption offenses.
Gustavo Mendiri, the main executive of the Venezuelan champions, attended a game of Soles against Cañeros del Este, and expressed his gratitude for the invitation to the country by the Soles executives.
“We know what to do to be champions, and we will help Soles achieve its first championship title,” said Mendiri, a lawyer by profession who also had experiences with baseball and football teams in Anzoátegui state.
His journey through the Venezuelan sports world began between 2007 and 2010 when he served as vice president of Caribes de Anzoátegui in baseball.
Between 2007 and 2009, he was also at the helm of Deportivo Anzoátegui (Venezuelan professional football’s First Division).
His resume also includes the presidency of Monagas Sport Club (2012-13), a football club based in Maturín.
Between 2012 and 2015, he made history with the Marinos de Anzoátegui, winning three titles and a runner-up position as president of the basketball team.
Mendiri had taken over the position left by José Zambrano Lucero, a businessman who emerged from nothing to become the owner of Banorte Bank and Zuma Seguros, due to his connections within Chavismo. This was before Zambrano fell from grace in 2009 and fled Venezuela, accused of bankrupting the bank he headed. Like Mendiri later did, Zambrano had also presided over the Marinos de Anzoátegui basketball team.
However, there is another notable detail in Nabetse del Valle Vásquez’s business history. Vásquez is listed as the director of the Panamanian company ENERGY PROCESSING & RECYCLING INC., whose president is Gassan Salama Ibrahim, a militant of the Palestinian cause, born in Colombia and naturalized Panamanian.
Gassan Salama, who has also acted as an electoral observer in Venezuela, has partnered with the Maduro government in the food sale for the state’s Committee for Local Supply and Production (Clap) program through his company Lido Internacional S.A.
In 2017, the General Revenue Directorate of the Panamanian Ministry of Economy and Finance ordered the Public Registry of Panama to dissolve ENERGY PROCESSING & RECYCLING INC. after the company appeared on a list of legal entities with a three-year delinquency in fees.
Nabetse Vásquez registered the company GALAXY AIR LLC in Miami in 2013, alongside fellow Venezuelan Franco Antonio Lauricella Ramírez, who was married to Venezuelan actress Joseline Rodríguez. In 2021, Rodríguez confessed to the Venezuelan press that she had been a victim of physical and verbal assaults by her now ex-husband, Franco Lauricella Ramírez, of whom she stated had severe anger issues.
Other Figures Involved in the Orinoco Oil Belt Fraud
According to a report by La Noticia del Caribe in 2018, Bustamante is under investigation for allegedly laundering money originating from the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in several banks in the United States through businesses run by friends and family. This has forced the FBI office at the Embassy to investigate this businessman, and in conjunction with Dominican authorities, began a review of his financial and real estate transactions on the island, according to Dominican newspaper “La Noticia del Caribe”.
Bustamante, also known as “El Colorao,” is linked to another businessman who has temporarily resided in Miami, Florida, the Venezuelan Pedro García Ramos, ex-husband of Nabetse Vásquez Gómez and accused of drug trafficking in 2016 in Anzoátegui state, Venezuela.
Alias “El Colorao” maintains a new scheme of contracting and corruption with mixed companies of the state oil company PDVSA, following the collapse of firms being investigated inside and outside Venezuela, according to Dominican newspaper La Noticia del Caribe.
In 2017, Bustamante applied for an investor visa to reside in the United States, which was denied by American authorities. He now resides in a prestigious exclusive area of Santo Domingo, where once the Dominican and U.S. authorities’ investigation concludes, he is assured he will be processed for money laundering, which will determine if he harmed the U.S. financial system through opened accounts and various transactions without reporting the source of the funds.
According to a report by journalist Maibort Petit dated August 24, 2018, for the media El Tiempo Latino, within a broad dossier, two complaints were filed with the Venezuelan Constituent National Assembly (ANC) and the U.S. Embassy in Caracas regarding irregularities related to Petro, the cryptocurrency designed by Nicolás Maduro’s government, as well as money laundering.
On an undetermined date, lawyer Marcos Alberto Ascanio Salinas, affiliated with Chavismo, submitted to the then president of the Venezuelan Constituent National Assembly (ANC), Diosdado Cabello Rondón, and addressed to María Alejandra Díaz, a complaint accompanied by a request for a criminal, civil, and administrative investigation into what he considers a presumed criminal organization that has caused, according to him, devastating effects on the country, “generated by the commission of multiple criminal acts (…) whose fundamental purpose was, in our opinion, to enrich themselves and betray the nation.”
Meanwhile, on August 6, 2018, at the U.S. diplomatic mission, in the person of Chargé d’Affaires James Story, Ascanio Salinas denounced relatives of former Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment and president of the Bicentennial Bank Miguel Pérez Abad, namely, Juan Carlos and Teodoro Santiago Pérez Abad, holders of identity cards V-8338794 and V-8327536, respectively, legal representatives of companies in Venezuela that have benefited from a series of contracts for both procurement and works, in bolivars and dollars from Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., PDVSA.
The complaint states that these individuals “have constituted themselves to presumably fraudulently take advantage of the award and liquidation of preferential currencies without having complied with their proper use as requested, which is why they are presumed to be involved in currency-related crimes, tax fraud, fraudulent acquisition of currencies, conspiracy, money laundering, among others. This group of individuals managed to defraud the Nation and of course the Venezuelans.” A set of people and companies are said to be in collusion with the Pérez Abad brothers.
Furthermore, Ascanio Salinas believed that the Pérez Abad brothers would be violating the U.S. Patriot Act by using the financial system for laundering money from oil contracts deemed fraudulent.
He also states that Manoly Giunonna Ramíres Navarro and Nelson Rafael Bustamante Abidar are connected and interrelated with the Pérez Abad brothers, who are also shareholders of several companies based in the United States: JMC International Solutions LLC, Big Bus Constructions LLC, TPY USA LLC, Aventuras OPH LLC, Boynton OPH LLC, Delray OPH LLC, FT. Laurderdale OPH LLC, Jensen OPH LLC, OPH Global LLC, PH Gardens OPH LLC, Royal Palm OPH LLC, Artesanos LLC, Doral OPH LLC, Eluh Management Solutions LLC, Metagames Interactive Entertainment and Marketing Solutions INC, Metagames Interactive Marketing Solutions LLC, Plantation OPH LLC, and SWR OPH LLC.
In Panama, they would operate through the companies Metals Businnes Corporation INC, International Harvester Tractors INC, and Strong Investment House INC.
Nelson Rafael Bustamante Abidar
Manoly Giunonna Ramíres Navarro and Nelson Rafael Bustamante Abidar appear as employees of Empire Oriente C.A., JMCMOTO C.A., JJPérez Alemán y CIA, C.A. and Mayor La Algaida C.A. based in Venezuela, represented by the Pérez Abad brothers.
Ascanio Salinas further indicates that the Pérez Abad brothers are involved in violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
The Pérez Abad brothers would be committing the crime of laundering capital from corruption.
The lawyer urged the Attorney General’s Office in Venezuela to investigate how much currency has been granted to the Pérez Abad clan.
In the United States, Ascanio Salinas suggested that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and all international agencies responsible for investigating money laundering open an inquiry into these individuals to determine the source of the dollars invested in the companies they own.
In Venezuela, the youngest son of Italian construction magnate Umberto Petricca, Gustavo Petricca, following in his father’s footsteps, set up various businesses, some with controversial businessmen like Nelson Bustamante Abidar, accused of being part of Pedro León’s oil corruption network.
At the request of the Attorney’s Office of Venezuela, the 52nd Control Court of Caracas issued a detention order in 2019 against Massimo Giuseppe Decaro Prado for his ties to the embezzlement of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in the Orinoco Oil Belt, which occurred between 2010 and 2016.
Decaro was arrested on May 3, 2019, after an arrest warrant was executed by officials from the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim), the Venezuelan prosecutor’s office reported.
According to investigation efforts, the now-incarcerated individual managed large sums of currency, which, after phone investigations, implicated him as a frontman for the general manager of Constructora Urbano Fermín (Cuferca) and his brothers Carlos Enrique and Carlos Eduardo Urbano Fermín, who have arrest warrants for the same cause and are currently fugitives, along with former Guanta mayor Jhonnathan Marín and businessman Nelson Bustamante Abidar, alias “El Colorado”.
Nelson “El Colorado” Bustamante Abidar owned Bambuda Bar in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, an establishment frequented by politicians of various affiliations. Bustamante Abidar and his associates have served as contractors for governors, mayors, and PDVSA.
In some references, Bustamante is linked to other suspicious businesses and Colombian “packages.”
Bustamante is one of the businessmen against whom a court ordered further action in Las Villas, an upscale neighborhood in the Venezuelan city of Lechería, to also arrest former PDVSA official Pedro León, who was sought for illegal activities in the oil industry, as both shared a very close friendship that reached commercial levels.
Venezuelan journalist Leocenis García, through @LeocenisOficial, reported on February 11, 2017, on Twitter about a search order in Venezuela for businessmen linked to the Pedro León case and PDVSA.
In a document showcased by the communicator, it stated that the search order targeted a villa in the Urbanization Las Villas of Lechería, Municipality Diego Bautista Urbaneja in Anzoátegui state, against citizens “Nelson Bustamante and Carlos Urbano,” “relatives and compadres of citizen Pedro León,” according to the document, which adds that the order was due to complaints of “alleged irregularities committed by the mentioned citizens regarding the situation of the tank farm and shipment terminal of crude José Antonio Anzoátegui, located in the industrial condominium José Antonio Anzoátegui, Barcelona district, Anzoátegui state Venezuela, referring to the conditions of the loading platform, monoboya 6 west, from which 350,000 barrels of crude oil are shipped daily and the alleged contracts (PDVSA) carried out for such purposes.”
It was also detailed that the order was due to the alleged commission of the crimes of embezzlement and conspiracy.
In addition to his presenter brother, “El Colorado” Bustamante is a half-brother of a soap opera actress. Ironically, another of his sisters is a lawyer who published a book narrating heartbreaking life experiences and established the Ángeles del Camino foundation to aid victims of abuse.
Other references indicated that on July 19, 2018, Bustamante Abidar inaugurated the restaurant “Brangus Grill.” Social media asserted that Bustamante’s partner in the restaurant was Nabetse del Valle Vásquez, foster sister of Pedro León, former director of the Orinoco Oil Belt, who has been charged with corruption. The establishment had its name changed three times, starting as “Tintos y Carnes,” then “MU,” afterward changing to “Bambuda Bar,” and finally “Brangus Grill.” Nabetse Vásquez, besides having a familial relation with Pedro León, is a partner of the company of the Urbano Fermín, also accused of mismanagement in the Orinoco Oil Belt.
Paola Ortiz (lightly dressed) and Arabella Escudero (wearing glasses) have had romantic relationships with Nelson Bustamante Abidar, whom they made their partners in some of his businesses.
Paola Ortiz and Arabella Escudero
Some reports in 2019 indicated that both women were fighting for control over Bustamante’s assets and businesses, aiming to seize the money of someone being investigated for causing a massive embezzlement in the Orinoco Oil Belt in Venezuela.
Despite her relation with Bustamante, Paola was also romantically linked to her rival Arabella Escudero’s brother.
The Venezuelan actress Samanta González accused her cousin, Nelson Rafael Bustamante Abidar, of having sexually abused her on April 27, 2021.
The actress recounted that the man assaulted her in an abandoned house after getting her intoxicated in a Caracas mall.
“My perpetrator, my rapist, is a somewhat known person. He is actually a disgusting scum. He is my family (…) This character has been investigated by Cicpc, even though he was a Chavista for years, he has stolen a lot of money from the country (…) He is a piece of trash, he is my cousin, his name is Nelson Rafael Bustamante Abidar. He is the brother of Nelson Bustamante, the presenter. They are brothers on their father’s side,” the actress narrated.
“When I was 20, an old man from his family died (…) He was visiting for the wake and everyone was staying at my cousin’s house (…) All the cousins, four of us, went drinking in San Ignacio, and he got me drunk. I remember he was giving me whisky (…) When we got back to the house, I was very drunk, in front of my cousin’s house there was an abandoned house and they said: ‘let’s go see the abandoned house’ (…) We entered one of those abandoned rooms and he grabbed me, pulled down my pants, and raped me. I tried to leave, but he is a very big man, and eventually, I managed to sneak away and leave. I was in shock,” she added.
González commented that Bustamante terrified her, and she thought it was her fault for getting drunk and that it wasn’t rape. “He began to harass me afterwards (…) but I didn’t tell anyone.”
She indicated that when she was 5 years old, the accused was found with a 13-year-old cousin and he was already of age. “They found them in something” and the family handled it as if “it was her fault,” saying he had coerced her.