The digital erasure of the Morón Hernández family was so thorough and extensive that they became social media ghosts. There is little left of their businesses, dealings, and relationship with Nicolás Maduro Guerra besides what the Department of State stated when it announced sanctions against Santiago and Ricardo.
Since the time of Christopher Columbus, gold has always been present in both the imagination and territory that would later become Venezuela. It is no coincidence that the myth of El Dorado was born near the Orinoco, and even today, people search the mountains around Los Teques for the fabulous and legendary gold mines of the chief Guaicaipuro. Other valuable minerals, some discovered quite recently, abound as well.
Since the mid-20th century, Venezuelans have been familiar with the intensive extraction of oil, iron for steel and rebar production, and bauxite for aluminum reduction. However, the geologically diverse territory holds deposits of other minerals like manganese, rare earth elements, coltan, sulfur, quartz, thorium, kaolin, nickel, lead, zinc, uranium, copper, titanium, asbestos, magnesite, talc, feldspar, kyanite, gypsum, limestone, phosphates, coal, silica sand, white and red clays, pyrophyllite, dolomites, sands, diatomite, peat, and gravel.
With high oil prices, free exploitation of gold and diamonds was allowed, and concessions were granted to private companies. However, during the so-called Fifth Republic, the rules changed, prioritizing a mining title known as artisanal mining, small mining, and mining communities. The essential point is that the State reserves the right to explore directly or through mixed companies where it holds the majority of shares.
There were few surprises, except for some environmentalists, when in 2008, Hugo Chávez created the National Mining Company, which would handle the recovery of mines and ensure they did not “remain idle,” as stated by the Minister of Basic Industries and Mining, Víctor Álvarez R. At that time, it was estimated that only the Las Cristinas mine had proven reserves of 31 million ounces of gold, which have since increased to 44 million, categorizing it as the largest in Latin America. Crystallex International Limited, based in Toronto, received an exploration permit in 2002 and awaited environmental permits to begin exploitation. They never arrived, but nationalization did in 2010, which would come at a high cost for the Venezuelan State.
For years, environmentalists and indigenous communities blocked the operation of the mine. They argued that mining exploitation would cause irreversible ecological damage and harm to the indigenous communities. Las Cristinas is located between two ecologically significant regions: the Canaima National Park, one of the ten largest in the world, and the Imataca forest reserve, which covers 3.5 million hectares of the Guayana shield. The area is rich in gold, diamonds, iron, bauxite, manganese, copper, and has a unique diversity of flora and fauna. Even then, illegal mining and uncontrolled deforestation had devastated over 6,000 hectares.
Crystallex never extracted a gram of gold, but it claimed compensation from the Venezuelan state for the expropriation of its assets in Las Cristinas before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which ruled in favor of the miner for $1.4 billion. The Venezuelan state considered the amount excessive and did not pay, but Crystallex has demanded that all shares of the Citgo refinery in the United States be turned over as part of the payment. The only asset left standing from the demolished Pdvsa.
The Gold Exploitation Did Not Start with the Mining Arc
In February 2006, Hugo Chávez announced that he would increase the state’s presence in the mining resources of the country. There was no oil crisis, although over 20,000 workers had been fired and Pdvsa was engaged in activities unrelated to its purposes, from importing food to providing equipment and subsidies to government projects. In 2008, the price of oil surpassed $100 a barrel, and Chávez, with his unwavering cynicism, assured that with the “economic system” he was implementing, the country would continue to progress even if crude oil fell to zero dollars.
The exploitation of gold, coltan, uranium, nickel, and other minerals is not merely a consequence of the collapse of the oil industry. Mining and extractivism were part of Hugo Chávez’s plans since his time in the Yare prison. His economic conception was simple: to distribute wealth, not to produce it. All his environmentalist claims were nothing more than electoral fallacies, siren songs.
The same day he was inaugurated at Miraflores and announced his ministers, over 400 environmental activists, university professionals, scientists, and nature lovers who contributed significantly to his victory realized they had been deceived. The phrase captured by the press from the commander, “who preferred a glass of crystal clear water to all the gold of Venezuelan Guayana,” never turned into a slogan. The Minister of Environment he appointed, Atala Uriana, while she was a Wayuu indigenous woman, her environmental activism and knowledge hardly surpassed the first verse of the anthem to trees. Activists and environmentalists had hoped that the sociologist Alexander Luzardo, who had headed Chávez’s campaign and was properly qualified, would be appointed. He was the first major betrayal, but no more than the environment itself.
Mining Arc
On February 24, 2016, Nicolás Maduro Moros accelerated the “mining engine” and announced that 150 companies from 35 countries had expressed interest in investing in the extraction of metallic and non-metallic minerals. The reality was that no companies invested; instead, illegal mining exacerbated. The Mining Arc of Orinoco fell into the hands of “small mining” or artisanal miners, known as “garimpeiros.”
In the first half of May, Maduro Moros announced the sale to companies in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey of 13.7 tons of gold, bringing in $570 million to the Central Bank’s vaults.
Simultaneously, the area was taken over by 40,000 “independent” miners employing aggressive methods of gold extraction, without technology, and using materials like mercury or cyanide without any environmental controls. The voracious exploitation reached protected areas and forest reserves, contaminated rivers, and destroyed the vegetation layer of vast forested regions. Even the properties of Minerven were taken by artisanal miners, who ruthlessly destroyed flora and exterminated wildlife, subjecting the indigenous communities to slave labor.
The exploitation of sex and minors expanded, and the killings of miners became everyday events. In the struggle for deposits and extraction routes, dozens of massacres occurred, totaling over 250 murders. The government’s solution was to task the guerrillas of ELN and FARC with imposing order, supported by officials of the FANB.
There are 114,000 square kilometers of mining, mourning, ecocide, and unease, with no legal or fiscal security, where environmental and socio-cultural impact studies are ignored, indigenous community rights are violated, and national sovereignty is left in the open, despite the massive presence and participation of military of all ranks and branches. The current Minister of Mining is a vice admiral, a naval officer.
In April 2017, shipments of gold bars began arriving at the BCV vaults from purchases made by Minerven, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation, from small miners through the Popular Mining Council and the Venezuelan Economic and Social Development Bank (Bandes). However, the government calculated that much gold was still slipping through the fingers of independent buyers.
In May 2018, Tareck El Aissami, then Minister of Industries, together with the Attorney General’s Office and the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, devised an operation to detain businessmen in Bolívar state who bought gold from small miners. On June 8, 2018, the “Operation Metal Hands” was activated. Accused of smuggling mineral, some were arrested while others fled. Thirteen days later, the acting attorney Tarek William Saab announced the first results: 9 arrests, 39 arrest warrants, 31 red alerts requested from Interpol, 30 raids, and 23 vehicles seized. To demonstrate the unwavering action of the Public Ministry, he detailed that one of those arrested was Darwin Alan Evans, vice president of the state-owned company Minerven.
Shortly after, the Women’s Committee for Justice, Sovereignty, Dignity, and Peace of mining communities denounced the “emergence of shady interests” aimed at sabotaging the supply to the BCV of production from small miners. They claimed that the political and judicial persecution of Darwin Alan Evans was part of this scheme. They clarified that his vice-presidency at Minerven enabled the procurement of gold production among the authorized purchasers of the BCV from the productive units of small miners.
“With his inclusion in the ‘Metal Hands’ operation, gold purchases came to a halt. They then arrested Edgardo Parra, representative of the company Tesoro de Dios C.A., whose facilities were destroyed and looted by officials from Dgcim (General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence) “who are unaware of the strategic alliances signed with the Venezuelan state.” But not all were.
On August 31, 2018, Maduro ordered the creation of Mibiturven, S.A., a mixed binational company between Minerven and a Turkish-registered entity named Marilyns Proje Yatirim, S.A., which was managed by Alex Saab.
The extraction and sale of gold to the Central Bank of Venezuela became concentrated in few hands: Saab and the Morón family took over the business, and from the offices they shared in the Galipán building in Chacao, they closed operations to export gold, payment in euros, and sometimes exchange for food and tank trucks, among other goods.
In addition to the Morón Hernández brothers and Alex Nain Saab Morán, assignments were also made to Mario Enrique Bonilla Vallera and Raúl Eduardo Saavedra Leterni, fronts for Yoswal Alexander and Yosser Daniel Gavidia Flores, children from Cilia Flores’s first marriage.
Mario Enrique and Yoswal studied together at the School of Social Communication at the Universidad Santa María. They graduated in May 2013 in the XVIII promotion, with a mention in Audiovisual Communication. From January 2013 to June 2014, Mario Enrique worked for Cilia Flores in the Attorney General’s Office.
The lawyer Raúl Eduardo Saavedra Leterni, a friend of Yoswal and Yosser Gavidia Flores, co-owns Constructora M and R with Bonilla, a company that bought 7 of the 14 villas on the street in Cumbres de Curumo where the Gavidia Flores brothers and their father live. He also appears as a partner or legal representative in 13 of 25 companies linked to Bonilla Vallera. A business relationship that includes a close friendship. Both have celebrated the birthdays of Maduro’s stepchildren and his son Nicolás Maduro Guerra. They are all contemporaries, born in 1990.
Santiago and Ricardo Morón Hernández: Social Media Ghosts
Following the announcement of sanctions by the Treasury Department against the Morón Hernández brothers, journalists, analysts, and the naturally curious flocked to the Internet. However, the digital erasure was so thorough and wide-ranging that even their oldest friends and acquaintances, as well as frequent collaborators and attendees at glamorous social events, disappeared.
An excellent example is Zuzana Melicherová, partner of Ricardo José. Her photos with friends at Boston University vanished, along with photographic records of tournaments at the Altamira Tennis Club, memories of good times at Caracas nightclubs like Sawu and Rosalinda, workout sessions in fitness and yoga centers, visits to jewelry stores, and gatherings at restaurants and lounges at the Kristoff Hotel in Maracaibo with friends connected to health, fitness, and showbiz.
Their social media profiles ceased to be public. Only on a few third-party accounts are images that allow you to see the face of the Slovak-Venezuelan partner of Ricardo José in companies registered in Panama and Slovakia.
Zuzigucci, as she prefers to be called on social media, has maintained a close relationship with people from the medical and entertainment fields. Friendships she shares with her sister-in-law María José Morón Hernández, with whom she also shares a passion for haute cuisine, social circles, Gucci items, and meticulous personal image care.
María José Morón Hernández y su cuñada Zuzana Melicherová, junto a unas amigas dedicadas a la vida fitness
Zuzana Melicherova junto a dos amigas disfrutando de un evento social
María José Morón Hernández, junto a dos amigos, en un evento celebrado en Club El Lago
Considered one of the best tennis players of her time in Venezuela, she is remembered for her consistency and discipline, as well as for her European features. She never went unnoticed. Her special aura distinguished her on the court and in her dedication to luxury and exclusivity. Since childhood, she has lead a life without limitations. Her father, Rudolf Mellicher, indulged her in everything. His work with Vitkovice Interamericana, supplying industrial materials for mines, quarries, and large constructions, in addition to his role as a businessman with Angesocks, a textile company that received authorization from Cadivi for $16.4 million between 2004 and 2012, allowed him to provide a life of a princess in a country plunging into chaos and hardship.
Slovakia and the Czech Republic: Offshore Business Paradises?
Mellicher, who shared a passion for tennis with his daughter on the courts of the Altamira Tennis Club, remains active as a businessman with his wife Jarmila. Five months after the sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department on Ricardo and Santiago, for “their sustained support of the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro Moros and for actions that allowed a flagrant scheme of illicit gold and public corruption,” Vitkovice and Jarmila registered the company Avila Investment S.R.O in Slovakia, dedicated “to financial leasing, provision of credit or loans with monetary resources obtained exclusively without public announcement and without public offer of real estate securities.”
Zuzana and Ricardo José also registered a company in Slovakia, each contributing a capital of 2,500 euros. Its name, like that of the in-laws, gives a nod to the capital of Venezuela. It is called Ccs Investment S.R.O. –obviously, Ccs stands for Caracas– and unlike the Melichers’ company, it had four partners: Ricardo José Morón, Zuzana Melicherová, and the companies Fitap and Locoit, both related to others.
The company was established a year and five months before U.S. authorities sanctioned the Morón Hernández brothers and linked them globally with Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, their stepbrothers Yoswal Alexander and Yosser Daniel Gavidia Flores, children from Cilia Flores’s first marriage, and Alex Saab. Zuzana Melicherová served as the executive manager from its creation until March 10, 2021, a month and twenty days before its dissolution. Since June 7, 2022, the company has been formally removed from Slovak records. Avila Investment, belonging to Ricardo José’s in-laws, maintains its active business ID: 53421591.
As if they were shell companies, Avila Investment S.R.O and Ccs Investment S.R.O not only share references to Caracas but also the same address (Rudolfa Mocka 1/C Bratislava – Karlova Ves district 841 04) and the same type of business: “financial leasing, provision of credits or loans with monetary resources obtained exclusively without public invitation and without public offering of real estate securities, pawn shops, intermediation in granting loans or credits from monetary resources obtained exclusively without public invitation and without public offering of real estate securities, factoring and forfaiting, administrative services, intermediation activities in services, and business consulting activities, organizational and economic activities.”
Business Ventures in Panama and the U.S.
In 2012, Zuzana Melicherova registered ZMM Florida Real Estate Corporation in Florida, identified by number P12000085581 and located on exclusive Brickell Avenue. Apartment 2515 of Tower 1 at 475 Brickell Avenue, Miami, FL, 33131, changed hands from Ricardo J. Morón to Zuzana’s company, and a few months later to United LB LLC, a company registered under Luis Ramón Avilés Borja.
The property, valued at over $700,000, still appears as a reference for the Morón-Melicherová duo in some databases.
The partnership-business association of Ricardo Morón Hernández and Suzana Melicherová debuted in Panama with the company Jose Valeri Hermanos S.A., identified by number 817964. Its president was Ricardo Morón Hernández, the director Zuzana Melicherová, and the secretary Zulay Infante. The company was active during the years of close ties between the Morón brothers and the Maduro-Flores family, a time when Santiago, the youngest member of Morón Hernández, worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leaving on March 15, 2017. During those years, they were not infamous and maintained a low profile. Little information leaked. Their environment was loyal and remains so.
A lawyer from Zulia who studied with Santiago Morón Hernández and has been friends with him since young also prefers not to be identified, stated that the Moróns are liked. “They have always been kind, gentle, polite, and very attentive to me. I don’t know anything about their business, and I am not aware of their work. They have always been hardworking people, but I have no idea what they do. I only know that their family is lovely and they are very close, like most Zulia families. Sometimes they send private messages to friends, but without referring to their occupations.” That’s as far as it goes.
With money, power, and familial ties, they built a network of loyal acquaintances from the universities where they studied Engineering and Law, friends from clubs and parties in Maracaibo and Caracas, some businessmen and politicians, as well as notable nightlife figures in Caracas. Not even the friendships with whom they have had notable disagreements that distanced them dare share details about the world in which the Morón Hernández brothers operate.
“Yes, I knew her, but I want to forget that stage of my life, and I won’t talk about it. Excuse me,” was the response from a doctor who was a close friend and companion of evenings with Zuzana Melicherová.
Most who have associated with Ricardo and Santiago reply that they do not know who they are. They have reasons. Publicly, they are critics of the dictatorship, enemies of the regime, yet privately loyal and unwavering friends of their Zulia associates.
Of the 15 contacted individuals (lawyers, journalists, businessmen, stylists, artists, politicians, coaches) from the social circle of the Morón brothers, none admitted knowing them. “I have never heard of them. I believe they are not from Maracaibo,” was the concise response from a former regional business leader. The closest friends even claim memory problems to justify their lack of recall regarding anyone with such unusual last names.
“What did you say her name was? How is her name spelled exactly? Is there anything about her on Google? Can you send me a link, because I don’t know who you are talking about? I am not from Maracaibo. There must be some confusion, and it must be another person of the same name,” was the answer from a Caracas entrepreneur in the events world, a friend of Zuzana Melicherová.
In their circles, the famous and influencers of fitness, beauty, gastronomy, health, and lifestyle, all with tens of thousands of followers on social networks, close ranks and deny knowing who were once their workout buddies, birthday party companions, family celebrants, and nightclub night owls.
“I am against that government. I am not with anyone close to chavismo. I don’t know them,” replied a person from their group of friends. They all seem sure there’s nothing online to connect them: “Neither on Instagram nor anywhere is there anything, because I don’t know them.” However, the few public features that can still be found on social media contradict this.
Ecological Mining: Another Socialist Oxymoron
The website of the Ministry of Ecological Mining Development describes 18 mixed companies, the minerals they exploit, and the project duration. Third on the list is the Ecosocialist Mining Mixed Company Parguaza (Emmepsa), a partnership between the Venezuelan Mining Corporation S.A. (55%) and Corp Faoz C.A. (45%) for the exploitation of diamonds and coltan, a strategic mineral used in the microelectronics, telecommunications, and aerospace industries for 20 years in the Cedeño municipality of Bolívar state.
The president of Corp Faoz was Félix Ángel Oliveros Alcalá, part of Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra’s circle of friends, a link that explains why his company’s contribution was merely 450,000 bolivars, an insignificant amount compared to the scale of exploitation expected. Similarly, Corp Faoz participates in Ecomine (Joint Mining Company of Nueva Esparta) for the exploitation of magnesium on Margarita Island. Corp Faoz is headquartered in Barbados, with Rafael Enrique Solórzano Alcalá as director, a relative of Félix Oliveros Alcalá.
The mixed company Parguaza began operations in 2017 and extracted one ton of coltan while calibrating and training workers and technicians, yet the project aimed to produce 20 tons monthly. After a few months, the general manager of Emmepsa, Ana Lisbeth Rondón, documented an act stating that due to “irregularities in mineral exploitation,” Santiago José Morón Hernández, Alejandro Batraki, Alberto Romero, and Jonel Ortiz took possession of the company. In the document, Morón Hernández, identified as the state’s representative, accused the operators of Emmepsa of defrauding the state with questionable figures. César Sanguinetti was the president of the mixed company.
Félix Oliveros would have been incorporated into the mining project by Maduro Guerra to serve as one of the designers responsible for creating both mixed companies handling the gold and coltan business. This marked the first legal exploitation of Venezuelan coltan. However, the mineral, composed of columbite (col) and tantalum (tal), must be processed abroad for commercialization. There are no plants in Latin America to separate tantalum oxide. The price of coltan varies from $40 to $130 per kilo, depending on quality.
After raising the act against Félix Oliveros Alcalá, the state representative, Santiago José Morón Hernández left Alejandro Batraki in charge, who, according to the acts, reiterated that the objective of the intervention was to obtain greater cash flow through a strategic alliance, dismantle the existing pre-concentration line at the mine, and lay off a large number of technical, administrative, and labor staff.
Félix Oliveros Alcalá, who is currently sheltered in Spain, reported that since 2018, brothers Santiago and Ricardo Morón have been in charge of Emmepsa, managing it from Caracas, specifically on the 7th floor, office 72 of the Taeca Tower on Guaicaipuro Street in El Rosal, owned by Constructora Cresmo. The Moróns maintain another operational center in the Galipán building on Francisco de Miranda Avenue, just a few blocks from the Taeca Tower. “Accounting and shipment directions are managed from there.”
Oliveros Alcalá stated that once he legally and operationally shaped the operational platform for the extraction and commercialization of coltan in Parguaza, his former allies set a trap and exploited him. He considers himself a victim of expropriation, persecution, and attack by the Morón Hernández family.
Using the numbers that Santiago Morón Hernández stamped on the act of Emmepsa –which he called “fraud against the state”– Oliveros Alcalá was imprisoned for 45 days in the Dgcim’s basement and forced to transfer ownership, hand over documents, and all negotiation, market, and client data for the Emmepsa and Ecomine companies. Upon passing both companies into their hands, they became the nerve center of gold operations, under the management of another friend of Maduro Guerra, Eduardo José Rivas.
INVESTIGATION TEAM
Ramón Hernández
Carola Briceño