In Venezuela, there is a lot of talk these days about whether Edward Snowden will end up in Caracas, protected and supported by the Chavismo. Snowden, already globally famous for revealing how the United States government spies on its citizens, recently expressed his “gratitude and respect for being the first to oppose the human rights violations perpetrated by the powerful and not by those who lack power…”.
César Batiz is not a whistleblower but an award-winning journalist. Venezuela is a country where the Thin Blue Line is not the police but fearless journalists and muckrakers in the best sense of the word. Batiz works for Ultimas Noticias (the most-read newspaper in Venezuela). In 2011, Batiz published a couple of articles about an unfolding corruption scandal in the energy sector. Derwick Associates, a company that appeared out of nowhere, was granted 12 contracts in 14 months to basically resolve Venezuela’s energy crisis. Derwick overcharged hundreds of millions of dollars and likely shared the profits with its friends in Chávez’s government. So how did Chávez’s buddies in the private sector and the Venezuelan government react to this journalist’s corruption claims?
This is how.
Meet Franklin Chaparro. He owns a security company called Servicios de Seguridad Consolidados (SERSECO). Chaparro started as a firefighter, moved into security, at one point was a “commissioner” of the DISIP (former intelligence police), and ended up in the private sector. His work in the field of security is well-known and respected in Venezuela. He has a radio show. He is also a leading voice within FEDECAMARAS (a business group), and his success has been highlighted in business publications. His company represents Garrett for Venezuela and the Caribbean.
Sources within SERSECO have revealed that Chaparro, who preaches about “the enormous moral crisis” affecting Venezuela and how he “respects people’s dignity,” has worked for Derwick Associates. However, his role is not limited to simply providing Derwick Associates executives with dozens of bodyguards. The young Turks at Derwick were becoming paranoid about the level of detail in Batiz’s journalistic reports regarding their crimes, so they wanted to find out if someone within their organization was leaking information to Batiz. Thus, Chaparro was asked to spy on César Batiz.
Chaparro, having ties to the intelligence police, must have reached out to his old friends for help. When I asked Batiz about this, he mentioned that a satellite tracker was placed on his car. Men on motorcycles were assigned to follow all his movements. His work diary—where Batiz kept extensive notes of his investigations, contacts, phones, appointments, etc.—was “suddenly lost” in his own home. His email was hacked. Additionally, his elderly mother received threatening phone calls from the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN). SEBIN is the new DISIP, where Chaparro was a commander. Batiz himself was also called multiple times by SEBIN operatives, who demanded he report to their offices for questioning about his sources.
Unlike Snowden, Batiz is not revealing secret surveillance plans (but it’s high time someone blew the whistle on how Venezuela spies on its own people). Instead, Batiz is exposing corruption in the billions of dollars within a country whose government allegedly cares for the poor. Batiz’s rights have not been respected. His work has been targeted for discrediting, not in the press as would happen in true democracies, but by a private security firm working in cahoots with the country’s intelligence services, while Derwick Associates used its contacts with high-ranking officials to have the intelligence services act as their private security contractors. Imagine the front-page coverage in the United States if a private security firm teamed up with the FBI, without official authorization, to pursue Glenn Greenwald, hack his email, track his car, harass his mother, and summon him for questioning—not for publishing the government’s surveillance system, but for exposing theft and corruption. That is the Venezuela that respects Snowden…