[Added: Check the latest here in English, or follow my TL on Twitter] Rumors have been circulating for some time about the alleged sale of El Universal, Venezuela’s oldest and last-standing independent newspaper. The sale, rumored to be around 90 million euros, has been confirmed this week. The new director will be Jesús Abreu Anselmi, a mysterious figure with an intriguing past connection to the Latino Bank of Gustavo Gómez López and, more recently, to the traitor -and former partner of Gómez López- Gustavo Cisneros. Abreu is also the brother of Maestro Abreu, the renowned director of Venezuela’s world-famous music system, El Sistema. Abreu did very little to establish his credibility and calm concerns about the latest controlling party when he pointed out the Spanish Epalisticia S.L. as the group behind the purchase. Epalisticia S.L. is a €3,500 company that started operations less than a year ago.
Epalisticia S.L. has a partner: Tecnobreaks Inc, which is another €3,500 shell incorporated last August. And who is the only partner of Tecnobreaks Inc? Epalisticia S.L. Note added on 07.13.2014: Tecnobreaks is also a Panamanian company, whose president –Carlos Odín Velazco Cuello– admitted he didn’t know his company was involved in the purchase of El Universal.
The sole previous partner of Epalisticia (before Tecnobreaks Inc) was Mediterranean Search SL, which, surprisingly, is a shareholder of Banesco Holding Latinoamerica (a co-partner of Banesco Bank belonging to Juan Carlos Escotet). Mediterranean Search is one of hundreds of shell companies controlled by the Cuatrecasas law firm, one of the largest in Spain and the chosen firm of the boliburguesía.
The company’s domains, both Epalisticia.com and Epalisticia.es, were registered by a Miami-based company on March 10, 2014. After being exposed, the designer of Epalisticia’s website and logos, also based in Miami, removed her involvement from both her website and Behance.net (we’ve saved copies, so don’t bother…).
It is very clear that Epalisticia is nothing but a façade, without any credibility or track record. Its claim of having “over a billion dollars” in capital investments is just unfounded nonsense. And did I mention that according to current legislation, it is illegal for foreign corporations to own newspapers in Venezuela?
Its directors –Eduardo López de la Osa, José Antonio de la Torre* and José Luis Basanta**- are totally unknown figures, dark individuals without any background or experience in media, nor in successful investments anywhere. Epalisticia’s email address is dysfunctional, and no one answers its phone number.
So how does Abreu expect anyone to believe a word he says in the future? How can Abreu and his paymasters expect El Universal not to follow the fate of Últimas Noticias, Globovisión, and El Nacional, given the obscurity surrounding the identity of its new owners? How can the new control of El Universal expect its newly formed shell, without verifiable backgrounds, led by bankrupt types and directed from an apartment in Madrid, to be taken seriously? As this farce gains momentum, Andrés Mata, the former owner of El Universal and someone who could very well identify the purchasing parties, is not responding to repeated requests for comments. I wonder why that is… Check my Twitter account @alekboyd, as I will publish more findings there.
*José Antonio de la Torre was the director of a company called Torreangulo Arte Grafico SA. Curiously, it was a small family printing house that went bankrupt not long ago. In fact, the administrators were appointed by the Commercial Court number 3 of Madrid in May 2013 due to insolvency.
**José Luis Basanta Otero is involved in three companies: Epalisticia, Geostancia, and Alter Capital (the latter involved in bringing Mexican capital to Spain). The first two of the three companies in which Basanta Otero participates have a joint capital of less than €10,000, and all three operate from an apartment in Madrid. Basanta Otero is also associated with something called Neopharm Obesity, a subsidiary of Landsteiner Scientific, where the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is supposedly a shareholder.