It was reported yesterday by El Nacional, without giving many details, that Alessandro Bazzoni is the ultimate beneficiary of United Petroleo, a Panamanian trust that has been lifting PDVSA crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years. United Petroleo was part of a trade that [1] involved Refinery of Petroleum of the Caribbean, Refinería di Kòrsou, and several authorities in Curaçao. Other reports indicate that after Alex Saab’s arrest in Cape Verde, his partner, convicted drug trafficker Alvaro Pulido Vargas, continued to trade with PDVSA using a series of shell companies that this site had previously revealed [2] as part of Saab’s network. Bazzoni and Saab also made a significant amount of business together, also [3] exposed here in May 2020. So, where do these transactional societies leave Luis Giusti?
Giusti and his son were once guests of Pulido Vargas on a private flight. [4] It was reported in Ecuadorean media. The fact that Giusti had no problem being in that company says a lot about his integrity, and explains his later involvement with Bazzoni, blacklisted by the US Treasury.
Giusti & Co made exactly that deal in Curaçao. [5] The presence of Giusti in the process to launch Isla Refinery arrived at a sudden but predictable end, with the dissolution of Caribbean Petroleum Refinery. However, there are still many unanswered questions about the deliberate blindness of Curaçao authorities in what can only be described as an absolutely corrupt energy deal.
With United Petroleo, Bazzoni allegedly used the name of a well-known Sinopec subsidiary to do business with PDVSA. This is a proven and tested method that has been used [6] extensively during the Chavista regime in Venezuela.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan authorities are set to combat corruption around Tareck El Aissami’s mandate as Minister of Oil in charge of restructing PDVSA. Some arrests have been made, including curiously Pulido Vargas. It is evident that the [7] Maduro administration can only be selective when it comes to corruption. There is an unbreakable chain that unites and sustains the entire structure. It would take too long to enumerate all the links of the chain, but this site has maintained a meticulous follow-up.
The corrupt structure of Tareck could not function independently, only linked to the network of Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez, or Diosdado. Maduro & Cilia, seated at the top of the criminal enterprise, cannot expect that his [8] anti-corruption campaign will be taken seriously.
What Maduro is doing is a kind of purge. Money is scarce and the gluttony of his companions-in-crime is being punished. This does not mean, in no way, that Maduro is clean and others are not. Remember the narco-nephews? Remember the backing and debt of Maduro to Alex Saab, and the [9] enormous amount of political capital that he personally invested in freeing that thug? Maduro knew from the start that the main partner of Saab was the ex-head of the Cartel of Bogotá, but he has subordinated the resources and reputation of Venezuela to Saab. [10] What does that say about him?
It’s just a process of restructuring corruption, a realignment, that Tareck should have done. Venezuela = corruption. This has been, is, and will continue to be a constant.
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