A stealthy operation is currently in full swing in Baruta, a middle-upper class municipality in southeast Caracas, still under the leadership of Mayor Darwin González, who claims to oppose the chavismo regime similarly to his party, Fuerza Vecinal.
This operation ultimately benefits a man who has firmly planted his flag in the municipality, Colonel Alexander Granko Arteaga, head of special operations at the Military Counterintelligence Directorate (Dgcim) and commonly recognized as an emblematic torturer of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
Major Alexander Granko Arteaga is relentless in strengthening his business network. Credit: Dgcim’s Instagram account.
For years, using family members and acquaintances as revealed through a series of reports by Armando.info, Granko Arteaga has been consolidating and expanding a business empire that includes ventures in sports. He not only promotes physical activities and athletes through his Team Espartanos platform but is also emerging as a de facto partner of the Universidad Central de Venezuela Football Club (UCV-FC), recent champions of the Venezuelan professional football’s Apertura Tournament.
The team has exclusive training grounds owned by Granko, known as the High-Performance Sports Center (CDAR), formerly the FutSal Park, located in the Los Samanes urbanization.
The complex sits on two plots between the Los Samanes and Guaicay neighborhoods, one of the most exclusive areas in Baruta. It is on this land that the maneuver is taking place, designed to ensure that both parcels of land end up in Granko’s hands, despite being municipal property.
Rearranging the lease
A historical review of the property dealings involving the current CDAR in Los Samanes must trace back to 2014 when then-mayor Gerardo Blyde granted the Los Samanes plot on a lease.
At that time, the owners of the sports center were Diego Javier Fernández Zapelli, who was also a partner of the A.C. Atlético Venezuela Football Club, which was dissolved in 2022, and Luis Quintero.
However, starting in 2023, Juan Useche Oropeza and his cousin, Aldrey Rodríguez, began presenting themselves as the owners of the complex in meetings with local residents and community councils, something confirmed by property records. It was also around this time that Alexander Granko Arteaga began leaving traces indicating that he was the de facto owner of the Los Samanes sports complex. The colonel, using his wife Yhuryseck Escalante as a front, eventually took control of UCV-FC.
Since Granko took de facto control of the Los Samanes complex, he has carried out expansions that violate urban planning regulations. Credit: CDAR_LosSamanes Instagram account.
Today, UCV-FC, which plays its home games at the Olympic Stadium in the Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas, regularly trains at the Los Samanes facilities. This is merely a reflection of a deeper relationship between the football club and the CDAR: Juan Useche Oropeza was the owner of both the sports complex and the UCV-FC, which Granko and his associates appropriated through unclear processes.
For instance, in this new phase with Granko in charge, the newly renamed CDAR Los Samanes underwent physical changes, including new fields and several buildings. These structures allegedly did not respect the boundaries of the nearby Guaicay lagoon, which, according to local representatives, signals a coming environmental disaster.
With reckless abandon, Granko executes an identical extension of his domains, yet property records reveal the arbitrary operation that is about to turn public assets into private ones. This became evident through a review conducted by Armando.info of received documentation and discussions with three sources related to municipal government entities.
The entanglement begins to be revealed through the lease granted by former mayor Blyde. The twelfth clause of the aforementioned document regarding the reversion of the constructed assets states: “Due to the public interest embodied in the sports, recreational, and service facilities, and other works executed by the lessee on the municipal land for the construction of the Futsal Park Sports Complex, they will be considered an integral part of the property, remaining wholly free of encumbrances and burdens in favor of the municipality, and no compensation or payment can be requested from the municipality for such concepts.”
In other words: everything built for the sports complex, as well as the land granted under the lease, belongs to the municipality and is part of the property’s value. So how has the municipality reached a point where it not only prepares to alienate these assets but sell them to a private entity for a price likely lower than their market value?
Using the violation of that original lease clause as a starting point, an ex-councilor of Baruta, who remains unnamed for security reasons, explains to Armando.info that an illegal maneuver is being carried out, aimed to be completed before the municipal elections in Venezuela, scheduled for Sunday, July 27. In those elections, Mayor Darwin González is running for reelection during a period marked by general apathy and calls for abstention from leader María Corina Machado, while chavismo sees a real chance to win at the polls in the traditionally opposition stronghold of Baruta, however minimal.
“Granko invents the idea of changing and reclassifying the land because he no longer wants to invest in it, but doesn’t want the property to return to the municipality. That’s why he shifts from public ownership to private,” they summarize.
The issue doesn’t end there. In the public offer that, as part of a forced front, the Baruta Mayor’s Office launched in June for the sale of these parcels, an approximate base price of $328,000 was established based on the official exchange rate for the 10.1 million bolivars that the municipality asked for the Los Samanes land and the 8.6 million bolivars for the Guaicay land: the 2.6 hectares on which the CDAR Los Samanes is built.
Regarding this, the ex-councilor who spoke with Armando.info explains: “That bidding has a base price of around $300,000. They are gonna sell for $300,000 what should cost more because, according to Granko, he has only invested about four million dollars in expanding the complex. However, according to my calculations, at least $10 million have been invested in that expansion. The reality is that the municipality would lose millions.”
He also lists the infractions that Granko would have committed during the land acquisition process: neither did he get the approval of the Local Public Planning Council (CLPP), nor did Mayor González show up to present the project. Moreover, there were neither signatures of the CLPP members in session nor adherence to the laws regarding alienation and reclassification.
“Additionally, the bidding was rushed, within minimal legal time frames, so that the mayor could deliver the title of sale for that land. They arranged it so it wouldn’t fall into the hands of another mayor. If another mayor were to come in [after July 27], he wouldn’t be able to reverse this process. That’s how outrageous this negotiation has been,” they emphasize.
Even the one yellow card didn’t budge them
The sales timeline for the two consolidated parcels was set to start on June 9, 2025, and close on June 25. If it adhered to the schedule, the Baruta Mayor’s Office should have published the award act on June 25 on its website. However, this hadn’t happened at the time of this story’s publication, nearly 20 days past the official deadline.
González, candidate for reelection, is a diligent player in Granko’s Baruta business dealings. Credit: Darwin González’s Instagram account.
Another source, also related to the Baruta Municipal Council and whose name is reserved for protection, explains the irregularity, leading with this: “We are looking at the privatization of public lands. When we talk about public domain, these are lands like Plaza Bolívar: you can’t sell them. And to do so, they employ a highly dangerous tactic, which is the main cause of jail time for council members: reclassification.”
Then, through a series of questions, they review the irregularities: “How do you sell the land if there are machines working? If you’re selling, you must end your concession contract. So, where’s the termination of that concession? How much did the municipality receive for the investments made on the land? Where are the permits for alienation and reclassification, which is to convert it into private land?”
Reclassifications, critics note, have been approved with opaque speed.
It’s pointedly noted that the public offer, which was advertised in Caracas’ El Universal newspaper, circulated for merely a couple of days: from June 10 to 12. A valid sale was supposed to adhere to certain legal forms, no matter what.
“Everything is a cover-up for Granko’s benefit. Darwin González did this to free himself of responsibility, to say he aired the public offer, and it was declared void because only one bid came in. What a coincidence, because it’s that man [Granko] who is already in there. They complied with formality, published on June 10, but by the 12th it was already gone,” they insist.
Furthermore, a report dated July 3, 2024, from municipal attorney José Gregorio Correa Torres (son of the current National Assembly deputy, José Gregorio Correa), reaffirmed that the land is public domain. This should undoubtedly serve as a brake on the land sale. The same document emphasized that previous reclassifications and alienations of public domain assets are necessary requirements for the conversion currently underway for Granko’s benefit.
“In order for the land to be sold finally, various steps must be taken for alienation: consultation with the CLPP, approval from the Municipal Council, and a public consultation submitted to the community for consideration, which has not been done,” they stress.
A third source, a lawyer previously connected to the local mayorality, highlights a term, ejidos, that relates to the lands of Los Samanes and Guaicay: “These are simply municipal lands and are first-category properties. They cannot be alienated.”
Therefore, they continue, “all improvements revert to the municipality at the end of the concession, and moreover, during it, free privileges are established for the schools and football clubs in the municipality,” something no one has noted being upheld.
They also highlight the environmental violations that local residents have reported concerning the expansions led by Granko at the CDAR Los Samanes.
“The boundaries set [in the 2014 lease] are far away from that lagoon [of Guaicay]. If they’ve moved towards the lagoon, it means that they’ve either changed the boundaries or invaded spaces not delivered in the lease. I’m talking about many square meters, over 11,000 extra square meters, because they’re not even close. To start with, the elevation difference is enormous. The football field is not only distant, but also much lower than the lagoon. It’s not easy to reach there from the area of the initial concession,” describes the lawyer. Yet that’s what seems to be intended behind the scenes.
The encroachments on the declining lands have become so striking and alarming to local residents that, in December 2024, the mayor’s office, through its Engineering Department, had to issue a stop-work order. Regardless, construction has continued without consideration or consequence.
Armando.info sent a questionnaire with several questions regarding this matter to the Baruta Mayor’s Office’s institutional email, specifically addressed to Mayor Darwin González, but no responses were received by the time of this article’s conclusion.
González did not respond to the questionnaire sent for this work. Credit: Darwin González’s Instagram account.
The missing link
Within the documents of the UCV-FC team, one name stands out, relatively unknown to the public yet crucial to this story: Yubrazka Corina Rondón Montana.
As highlighted by Armando.info in a recent report, since April 2023, Yhuryseck Berenice Escalante Ferreira, wife of Colonel Granko Arteaga, has been displacing the former owner of the team, Juan Manuel Useche Oropeza, after acquiring one-third of his shares. Escalante, together with the Air Force lieutenant colonel José Alexander Gelvez Monterrey and his brother Robert Eduardo Gelvez Monterrey, are now the legal owners of the team and represent the entity in public appearances.
Useche, as previously mentioned, also appeared as the owner of FutsalPark, now transformed into the High-Performance Sports Center Los Samanes and home to UCV-FC.
Now, however, the mysterious Yubrazka Rondón Montana, secretary and trusted person of Yhuryseck Escalante -according to live sources consulted-, appears in records as the owner of the sports complex.
The public offer announcement was removed shortly after being posted in the official newspaper El Universal. Credit: Screenshot of El Universal
The faint trail of Yubrazka Corina Rondón Montana in documents accessible online only reveals that in 2017, she served, both as a full member and an alternate, on committees appointed by Venezuela’s Ministry of Food. Born in 1990, “from limited resources,” as described by a source who spoke with Armando.info for this report, Yubrazka Rondón has taken on the weight of being the owner of this venture due to her well-earned trust.
Her involvement comes to light in a commercial document where Laura Ramírez Gómez, a lawyer for the Granko-Escalante family, represented Rondón Montana in the acquisition proceedings for FutsalPark. Rondón now acts as the agent for CDAR Los Samanes, the latest conquest of Alexander Granko to complete a footballing trifecta – the sponsorship club, Team Espartanos; the franchise, UCV-FC; and the training complex, CDAR Los Samanes – that breaches any defense.
