The good people at Reporters Without Borders published a post titled “Corruption Beyond Limits in Venezuelan Internet,” highlighting the censorship of their site in Venezuela. Honestly, I was expecting a reaction from those mentioned, namely Derwick Associates (now rebranded as Derwick, as shown in the letter below). In their “clarification” letter to Reporters Without Borders, Derwick states the following:
On March 29, your organization reported information linking Derwick to the blockage ordered by CONATEL against the blog www.infodio.com.
Translation: “On March 29, your organization reported information regarding Derwick’s connection to the prohibition ordered by CONATEL against infodio.com.”
So here is Derwick, pretending to have no relation to the ban imposed by the Venezuelan telecommunications regulator on this website. Readers may remember that this site was blocked in Venezuela on January 16, 2014, right after it published a post about an amended claim made by Otto Reich in his RICO lawsuit against Derwick and its executives Alejandro Betancourt and Pedro Trebbau. I heard from readers using Inter as an ISP that they could not access infodio.com in Venezuela, so I turned to Twitter for confirmation. Some said they could access it, while others said they could not. What started with Inter soon turned into a general ban. On January 17, users from Inter, Movistar, Supercable, and CANTV reported that they couldn’t access this site.
On July 18, 2013, renowned Venezuelan journalist Nelson Bocaranda reported that “some bolichicos had paid $45 million for one of the most important cable operators in the country,” adding that the deal was done in Texas:
“$45 million was the sum paid by some ‘bolichicos,’ the young bolibourgeois entrepreneurs who grew up under the shadow of the electricity drama, for one of the country’s most important cable operators. The deal was in Texas…”
Later that day, I commented on the deal, based on information I received from a source:
“Bocaranda likes cryptic language and nowadays he has to defend himself in chavista kangaroo courts, so let me explain his message: Derwick Associates bought Intercable from HM Capital Partners for $45 million.”
Months would pass, and I heard again about the deal from a completely different source, who told me that Yosef Maiman (a shareholder of Inter) had sold a stake to Alejandro Betancourt. I thought it was only right to ask HM Capital and Yosef Maiman if there was any truth to the allegations (aside from the bribery attempts by Alejandro Betancourt’s stepfather, none of the Derwick executives responded to my requests for comments). I also sent a request for comment to Bernard Aronson from ACON Investment. The reason is that ACON Investments is mentioned in press releases about a $100 million investment in ProEnergy Services, the subcontractor Derwick used in all its projects in Venezuela. Then there’s Daniel Jinich, managing partner at ACON, who joined after a stint at HM Capital. Given what I heard about HM Capital’s involvement in the deal, I thought it was appropriate to try to get a word from them. Unfortunately, no one responded.
So what do we have here? An “energy company” claiming it has nothing to do with internet service provision, even with Inter, sends a letter to Reporters Without Borders revealing that CONATEL ordered ISPs to censor this site. My question is: how does Derwick know that CONATEL issued an order to ban this site if it has nothing to do with internet services? Should we assume that energy companies are also informed by CONATEL—as a matter of practice—about their censorship actions?
But then, Derwick answers the question:
…the action ordered by the authorities derives from a legal action filed by individuals with no link to our organization.
In other words, the order [to ban infodio.com] stems from a legal action brought by people unrelated to Derwick. My question is: what legal action is Derwick aware of, from people who “have no relationship whatsoever” with their organization? Therefore, Derwick is not only aware of CONATEL’s censorship orders, but also knows the reasons behind them!
I believe that Derwick’s letter serves only one purpose: to further undermine their credibility (if that’s even possible).
Sources have told me that Derwick actually has an excellent relationship with SEBIN (Venezuela’s intelligence service), as journalist César Batiz can attest. Furthermore, I’ve been told that Derwick gave a direct order to Rolando Esser de Lima (Head of Security at CANTV) to block infodio.com. While it’s nearly impossible to prove this unless my kind informants deliver the actual request, it remains a fact that Inter was the first ISP to block this site, and others followed. It is also true that, at the time of writing this article, infodio.com continues to be censored by the mentioned ISPs, including CANTV, the state telecommunications giant representing 80% of internet traffic in Venezuela. Finally, it is also true that this measure was taken after I published an update on the RICO lawsuit against Derwick in New York.
Then we have the small details, like Derwick’s claims of being aware of information that, by the very nature of its business, it shouldn’t be aware of, or the letter sent to Reporters Without Borders dated the day before its drafting (according to the metadata). Clearly, Derwick seems determined to completely bury its already battered credibility.