By: ISABEL GUERRERO
Source: Armando.Info
Nicolás Maduro finds himself more isolated than ever but still has political maneuvering power thanks to the support he received from Hugo Chávez before his death. As his allies in Venezuela dwindle, he has turned to Christian groups to showcase that his political project retains backing, despite the humanitarian crisis he has plunged the country into. One group showed support during the 2018 voting day, while another was his opponent in elections that half the world is skeptical about. This opponent is Javier Bertucci, the pastor leading the Maranatha church in Venezuela, a man who has successfully intertwined business and politics under the shadow of the “Bolivarian revolution.”
During the presidential elections of May 20, 2018, Nicolás Maduro appeared to lack the confidence to secure his presidency again. The opposition, persecuted and fragmented, did not participate in an election deemed opaque and without guarantees. Much of the international community declared that it would not recognize the results of these elections—called against all odds by the pro-government Constituent Assembly—labeling them as “illegitimate.”
Nonetheless, Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed by the National Electoral Council (CNE) at the end of that voting Sunday to remain as President of Venezuela from 2019 to 2025.
To mask the illegitimacy of the event and its results, the government included alternate candidacies to Maduro’s, which were more symbolic than competitive.
Among these was the Hope for Change (El Cambio) party, a political organization inspired by evangelical principles that, within less than two years of its creation, secured a place on the ballot.
It performed decently with its candidate, Pastor Javier Bertucci. According to official results from the election with the highest abstention rate ever recorded in Venezuela, Bertucci came in third, garnering 1,015,895 effective votes equivalent to 10.82% of those who participated.
This was not the first electoral venture for an evangelical party in Venezuela, not even during the Chávez era. In the presidential elections of April 2013, deeply polarized between Nicolás Maduro and Henrique Capriles Radonski, Pastor Eusebio Méndez, candidate for the Pentecostal party Nueva Visión Para Mi País (Nuvipa), secured a surprising third place. However, Nuvipa had a short existence; officially founded in 2012, the party was disqualified by the CNE in 2018 amid a wave of illegitimations that suppressed nearly all opposition political parties.
Another evangelical franchise with a longer history in the party system, the Authentic Renovation Organization (ORA), participated in the 2018 presidential elections as part of the official coalition, the Great Patriotic Pole, in support of Maduro.
Yet, the results of the May 2018 elections marked a significant moment for Javier Bertucci’s entrance into political debates; just over a million people chose to vote for him.
Before his public figure emerged, he was known first from the pulpit within the confines of his church Maranatha and the television slots he purchased on commercial channels late at night. Then, in 2016, his name popped up amid revelations from the Panama Papers.
Now, his words carry weight. Transforming into a column writer, his ambitions have swelled to the point of proposing in 2019 the establishment of a thousand new churches for his faith to, as stated on his website, “become disseminators with a unified language, sharing vision and purpose, working collaboratively among the Maranatha ministry, The Gospel Changes and Hope for Change, as all these organizations aim for the same goal.”
The Shadow of the Past
In addition to his pastoral and newly minted political roles, Javier Bertucci is adept at navigating business waters, alone or with family, underpinned by the neo-Pentecostal church belief known as the “prosperity theology,” even if he does not recognize it as such.
He is convinced—and the religious community surrounding him at Maranatha shares this—that his financial and material success stems from his communion with God and his commitment to others as a “good Samaritan.”
“Everyone has the right to prosper as a result of work, effort, and dedication. There is no ideology regarding this within our faith,” Bertucci stated plainly in an email response to a questionnaire from Armando.Info.
Since 2007, he has signaled his inclination towards business, as he is registered in the National Contractors Registry (RNC) as a representative of the company Minería HG 2.8, which sold diluent for hydrocarbon mixing to Recicpetrol C.A. This family-owned enterprise, incorporated in 2007 in Guacara (Carabobo state, center-north Venezuela) and with branches in the United States and Panama, operates in petrochemical, oil, metallurgy, and construction sectors.
This unusual communion led him to unwanted prominence. His name surfaced in the Panama Papers when he considered heading the company Stockwin Enterprises Inc, founded in 2012 with a capital of five million dollars, primarily intended for the import-export of various supplies, especially food sector raw materials.
An investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) regarding the leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack-Fonseca uncovered the more concealed side of the pastor. His ambition to lead an offshore company raised suspicions, as it was established during Chávez’s stringent currency control, purportedly for humanitarian purposes. However, after press revelations, he claimed that the initiative “never materialized” and that he lacks resources for opening companies in tax havens.
“Regarding Stockwin Enterprises Inc., I want to clarify that my participation was considered to import meat products to ensure transparent management and appropriate distribution in low-income communities throughout the country, through Social Action Days organized by The Gospel Changes,” he stated in an official release after the publication.
His business network operates from Panama, the Dominican Republic, the United States, and Venezuela, where he oversees companies linked to the import-exportation of products, such as food, medicines, and energy services.
But this is not the only corporate incident where Bertucci has featured.
In 2010, another company owned by Bertucci, Tecnopetrol C.A., sold 5,000 metric tons of tecsol to a petroleum trading company called Carib Petroleum Inc, with offices in the Bahamas and Florida, owned by a Venezuelan named Carlos H. Gamboa. The shipment was supposed to move from Puerto Cabello, on Venezuela’s central coast, to the Dominican Republic by a third company, Eitzen Chemical, hired by Gamboa.
During the buying-selling operation and customs dispatch, Venezuelan authorities charged that the shipment was not tecsol (a chemical used as a base for degreasers and paint removers) but unregulated Venezuelan diesel. Bertucci was present, supervising the delivery to which his company was committed. He was arrested and sentenced for aggravated smuggling and conspiracy but was only held for three days. He was granted house arrest with special permission to preach, and subsequently, the sentence was changed to periodic reporting.
The case continued abroad, and in 2011, Eitzen Chemical sued Carib Petroleum and Carlos H. Gamboa for recovery of damages due to delays and other costs associated with the contracts, as noted in documents lodged with a court in Florida, USA. The plaintiff asserts that the vessel was detained as part of an investigation against Javier Bertucci from Tecnopetrol, which “had supplied the tecsol, under suspicion of illegally trying to exit the country with mislabelled diesel fuel.”
In his defense, Gamboa presented a deposition from Javier Bertucci, who declared in court that “after the vessel was midway loaded with tecsol in Puerto Cabello, a ‘military person’ supervising the entire port demanded a bribe of 500,000 dollars. When he refused, this military officer halted the shipment and the aircraft.” Up until 2018, the case remained open in appeal, with the defendants alleging that Tecnopetrol obtained all necessary government approvals for the sales and the detention of the vessel was illegal.
“I expect a change in the judicial system of the country, and I hope they will decide on this matter,” Bertucci stated about his case, which has persisted for nearly ten years.
Another Bertucci company that did not involve Mossack Fonseca raised some eyebrows. In 2013, a year after his connection to the Panamanian firm, he partnered in Biometrix-Med Equipment Corp with Nicolás Aular Parra, who was involved in other inactive companies and had a record of dubious dealings related to importing vehicles into Venezuela. Their partnership, located in Florida, USA, was aimed at trading goods and services.
Following the Panama Papers report, the company came to light, and Bertucci defended himself by saying it was a failed import project intended for donation.
After this episode, Bertucci embarked on a more discreet path involving a public relations campaign to restore his image and eventually advance his political career. However, this does not mean he halted his business endeavors.
The Pastors’ Network
In an old warehouse with a worn facade, surrounded by gray bars, located on Avenue 16A between streets 46 and 47 in Maracaibo, Zulia state, resides the headquarters of Hydrocore Oil Services, C.A. At the main entrance, there’s a sign for The Gospel Changes and the Maranatha Church, one of the most attended in the country.
The coincidence of addresses is far from accidental. One of Hydrocore’s partners is Gustavo Valbuena, who has been the lead pastor in that community for at least 17 years. He was the campaign leader in the western states of Venezuela when Bertucci ran for president, and today he serves as the regional director of the Fundación El Evangelio Cambia. He also ran for the Zulia State Legislative Council, the regional parliament, although he was not elected.
His stake in Hydrocore is 20%, just like Bertucci’s. Another 20% belongs to Pastor Pedro Villalobos, linked to a religious organization or revival movement called Cave of Adulam, which operates between Colombia and Venezuela and supports displaced migrants in the Cauca region of southwestern Colombia.
This revival, a practice of praising and seeking the Holy Spirit amidst loud shouts and prayers, among movements and raised hands—some branches turn singing into a spectacle with lights and cameras to emphasize the frenzy—thus finds an unexpected connection to the oil business.
The remaining 40% is evenly divided among two more individuals, Paulo Davalillo and Andrés Guerrero, who, along with Villalobos, also share ownership in another company called Atlantic Energy, established in 2011 and connected to the oil industry. This Zulia-based partnership incorporates two other participants, Samuel Rojas and Daniel Farías.
A parallel can be seen between Hydrocore and Atlantic Energy. Both companies are situated in Zulia state, where the oil business remains robust despite challenges. They have a wide scope of related activities involving exploration, handling, treatment, and improvement of crude oil and water products from wells, as well as industrial maintenance and staffing. They share the same number of participants, and some names almost repeat in both enterprises. Three pastors are present in both, two of whom belong to Maranatha, while one features only in Atlantic Energy.
Although Farías is not a partner in Atlantic Energy, he serves as a director of Administrative Affairs on its board and seems to operate well in business as an operator. He is associated with at least thirteen companies, either as an administrative manager or legal advisor, providing various services, including chemical, oil, medical, and export services, though they usually keep a low profile without public descriptions or websites. In the case of Atlantic Energy, it previously rented the same premises as another oil company, River Tajo Inc., based in Panama, which has international ties extending to Poland, with an identical-named firm and a Venezuelan partner from Zulia.
Little information could be uncovered regarding the commercial activity of Hydrocore and how it operates for this report. Although Bertucci confirmed his involvement in the company to Armando.Info, notwithstanding the country’s circumstances and his previous incidents with Tecnopetrol, he did not expand on the nature of the company and is unaware of the parallels it shares with Atlantic Energy.
“It is my right to legally establish any company as a Venezuelan citizen; nevertheless, it has remained inactive for a long time, hoping to activate its operations when the national economic system allows for optimal development,” he clarified.
The Earthly Agenda
The first visit to the Maranatha temple is usually a surprise. An army of volunteers uniforms at the entrance and a river of people walking in spacious corridors. There are no images in the large hall, and at the back, ten steps lead to a transparent podium where the pastor speaks into the microphone. On one side is a uniformed choir, and on the other side, musicians. The Maranatha logo is prominently displayed, along with a projection screen and a grid of white lights illuminating the entire scene.
“This has been the success of this church, the fact that you overcome every obstacle to come to this place to pray or to listen to a word, and that we continue experiencing this manifestation of God in our lives is because we’ve been addressing the agenda and desire of heaven, not our own. We’ve been fighting to keep this church afloat. And we’ve been battling not because we are the ones maintaining it, but we must care for God’s flock,” stated Javier Bertucci at the start of his sermon on March 17, 2019, in front of a crowd waiting seated at his headquarters in Valencia, 150 kilometers west of Caracas.
This has served as the operational hub for the Maranatha religious organization and the civil association El Evangelio Cambia. From there, he maintains communication with his branches in various regions and even with cells located outside the country, though these function autonomously, as explained by a representative of the foundation over the phone.
Bertucci commented about the thin line separating the three organizations he leads as a pastor, political candidate, and president, declaring, “all three are independent; however, the unifying point is social work, the Christian faith, and love for our country.”
He adds that “many attendees at the church, according to their full exercise of citizenship and faith convictions, actively participate in El Cambio, joining ranks with others who may not attend a church but share the party’s vision. Furthermore, the volunteers of El Evangelio Cambia primarily comprise individuals who attend various churches, not only Maranatha but different denominations, including Catholics, along with organizations, entrepreneurs, and independent professionals who collaborate on the social work the organization has been conducting for over twelve years.”
During the Venezuelan carnivals of 2019, in early March, El Evangelio Cambia carried out a volunteer campaign in 28 countries, termed Global Evangelism. In Venezuela, it was led by Javier Bertucci. According to a foundation spokesperson, the aim was to convey “a message based on Christian values and principles” while also providing social assistance to the most vulnerable sectors. Volunteers traveled to beaches, rivers, public swimming pools, and other tourist sites, hosting children’s activities and music while distributing much-awaited soup amidst preaching and medical care.
This event unfolded simultaneously in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, the United States, France, Guatemala, Grenada, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, the Dominican Republic, Russia, Sweden, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
The spokesperson noted that they rely on donations but did not provide details about the resources used to purchase toys distributed at social and political events, which were made in China.
His spiritual father, the founder of the Universal Maranatha Ministry, Nahum Rosario—now based in Panama—mentions on his Facebook page that “in many Christian circles, [Bertucci] has been viewed with skepticism as he has never adhered to an orthodox, narrow, and denominational theology.” This positions him closer to neo-Pentecostalism, which represents a renewed Christian church vision that spares no expense for lights, cameras, and choirs, while collecting tithes.
Rosario refers to the Venezuelan pastor as “the apostle” who built a stronghold over the past 18 years. He recalls visiting when church attendance didn’t exceed 40 individuals, and now boasts over 16,000 regular attendees.
Bertucci now leads a faith empire through three associations: El Evangelio Cambia (civil organization, 2007), Hope for Change (political aims, 2017), and the Maranatha Church (religious organization, 1999). While the legislation specifies the operational boundaries of each entity and business, reality intertwines them and provides context for many ventures.
According to data from the National Contractors Registry (RNC), Constructora Bertucci C.A.—whose partner is pastor Francisco Barrios Rodríguez, his brother-in-law and head of Maranatha Church in Valencia—was awarded contracts by the Maranatha Foundation. Likewise, Agropecuaria Los Cedros C.A., also chaired by Bertucci and established in 2017, supplied beef to the religious association he led in the Carabobo capital. Others have been used to process donations or supplies for his church, as revealed in the Panama Papers. Even during his presidential campaign in 2018, he spoke about introducing medicines into troubled Venezuela under the guise of “religious aid.”
Import-export operations are a realm of commerce that Bertucci finds relatively uncomplicated, excluding the Tecnopetrol episode. In 2014, under his name, he brought goods to the country from the United States, entering through Puerto Cabello in Carabobo State worth around 30,000 dollars, as logged in Import Genius, a specialized international trade database.
This database contains traces of other imports, although not directly linked to the pastor. In 2012, the Maranatha Church in Valencia made an import worth 4,000 dollars, which pales in comparison to the 670,910 dollars recorded between 2010 and 2013 by Comercializadora Maranatha C.A., and 47,268 dollars by Distribuidora Maranatha. These latter brought publishing products (Bibles, prints, dictionaries, encyclopedias, ledgers, accounting books, receipts, calendars, among others) in shipments from the United States to Maracaibo.
Other companies associated with Bertucci include Health Supply Inc, Todo Salud Inc, and Sky Supplies Inc (Panama, 2009), where he appears as a director. He also holds Agropecuaria Los Cedros (Dominican Republic, 2017), while his daughter Raquel Rebeca is involved in the same business sector as the latter, owning Alimentos Los Llanos Corp (USA, 2018).
Soups and Power
His ever-stylish dark suit, worn during sermons, contrasts sharply with his typical attire during the election campaign: jeans and a long-sleeve white shirt printed with the Hope for Change logo, similar to all his supporters. The phrase “Bertucci Hopeful” was embroidered on the back.
He traversed much of the country accompanied by young dancers who opened for his political rallies. At the close of these events, organizers served soup to the attendees, a custom already followed in the congregations of the civil association El Evangelio Cambia, Bertucci’s social arm. The soup became a kind of rallying cry for his campaign in a Venezuela besieged by hunger and misery.
When formalizing his candidacy before the National Electoral Council (CNE, controlled by the chavista regime), he left it unclear to the evangelical hierarchy if he would separate from his pastoral duties. The Evangelical Council of Venezuela (CEV) and the General Assembly of God Federation of Venezuela (ADV), the two largest and oldest evangelical organizations in the country, stated that Bertucci’s decision was personal. The Maranatha Ministry does not belong to any of these religious representatives.
The CEV board issued a statement in April 2018, indicating that “the church does not align itself with any political or ideological categorizations, even when these aim to monopolize the representation of evangelicals.” On its part, ADV clarified to its ministers that if they wish to engage in politics, “they must resign from their pastoral roles… the intertwining of politics and religion distorts Christian principles and faith.”
Three days after the official results were known on May 23, 2018, Bertucci met with Maduro at the Miraflores Palace, the seat of the government. The televised encounter featured a comfortable meeting where he was greeted with a handshake from Jorge Rodríguez, Minister of Communication and Information, who accompanied him to the presidential office. Waiting nearby were Cilia Flores, First Lady, and Tareck El Aissami, the then Vice President. The first impression of their meeting concluded for the public when the president joined his hands before the pastor, who seemed to offer him a blessing.
This greeting appeared to seal a pact between the two men. The rumor of Bertucci’s closeness to the central power revived, allowing him to operate freely in economic and political spheres amidst growing restrictions. Maduro needed an opposition candidate who could simultaneously serve as an ally to legitimize the controversial snap presidential elections convened by the pro-government Constituent Assembly.
“The other point we discussed was what has always been my proposal as a candidate: opening a humanitarian channel. He approved in some way or suggested he was willing to allow external aid to address the population’s needs, in the area of food and medicine,” Bertucci remarked about Maduro following their meeting. At that time, Maduro did not acknowledge any humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, making the suggestion to open a channel for aid seem audacious.
Bertucci continued to remain politically active, and that same year, Hope for Change decided to also compete in municipal elections in coalition with other parties: Avanzada Progresista, Copei, and the Movement for Socialism (MAS). These parties were among the few that the CNE did not disqualify after the crackdown that invalidated the main opposition parties.
Grasping the pulse of the presidential race, Bertucci and his movement managed to nominate as many as 4,430 candidates for the 335 municipalities nationwide, a feat well beyond the reach of many political movements in Venezuela.
El Cambio secured some key positions, particularly in the municipality of Baruta, Miranda state, a middle-class suburb in southeast Caracas long known for its staunch opposition. They also made gains in Bolívar, Táchira, Anzoátegui, Carabobo, and Nueva Esparta regions, as confirmed in the post-electoral press conference in October 2018.
All candidates from Hope for Change were driven by a single narrative: the need for medical and food imports into Venezuela through a humanitarian channel, without specifying how or where.
In the press conference where Bertucci discussed the post-municipal elections balance, an Armando.Info reporter asked his campaign chief and advisor, Carlos Jiménez, about the promised supplies; he could not specify their origin. Additionally, he pointed out the unfeasibility in achieving that promised intake through the political organization since they cannot process any aid or donations. The pathway could be, he suggested, via the Fundación El Evangelio Cambia.
Bertucci managed only to respond in an email: “the aid managed will come under the figure of Christian aid, distinct from religious aid. This implies that both Christian organizations (churches, civil associations, foundations), as well as individual Christian believers, have independently and voluntarily been summing efforts and resources to send it.” However, he also did not provide further details regarding this.
Throughout 2018, Bertucci claimed in his speeches to have contacted foreign Christian organizations willing to assist in alleviating the crisis in Venezuela. He referred to some from South Korea and other “Mormon” groups from Switzerland. He mentioned the idea of creating “pharmacies of hope” to potentially reach hospitals. He stressed that creating this action requires collaboration with Maduro’s government; however, previously that channel had been rejected for being “humanitarian” (and thus accepting the crisis), so this time it would be termed “Christian aid.”
For Maduro and his government, the complex humanitarian emergency became increasingly undeniable, especially in the past year when the deterioration has been drastic. They need allies because government programs do not offset hunger nor silence the deaths caused by the lack of medicines and medical supplies. They also cannot hide the migration of nearly four million Venezuelans who have fled the country.
The non-profit foundation created by Bertucci in 2007 is responsible for direct social assistance and “planting values,” which requires organization members to have “active faith.” According to one of its national representatives, it has a “broad sense” and reaches various educational centers, penitentiaries, communities, hospitals, or any other vulnerable space. It offers food and medical assistance to low-income communities. Now, it’s also one of the “ministries” of the Central Maranatha Church (Panama) for the past four years.
Bertucci, brief in his responses, merely communicated to Armando.Info that he would continue with his political career and his social work.
The Shares of Faith
“Every day that passes while I face trials, every day we will become stronger, every day I believe more, I believe more in God and in the power of Christ because he accompanies me, embraces me, and protects me with his sacred mantle; he is with me; if God is with me, who can be against us.” It was not Bertucci but Nicolás Maduro who preached this speech at the installation of the Congress of Christian Movements in late January 2019.
For him, seated in the presidential chair without the support of at least a hundred countries, the idea of constructing a war against the internal enemy is the strategy for staying in power—an echo of Chavismo’s classic approach. Contrary to this is the neo-Pentecostal premise of the “overcoming of embodied evil” that promotes triumphant liberation from that struggle.
Maduro retains the backing of a sector of evangelical Christians and their votes. At the political event early in the year, religious representatives were mainly from the Authentic Renovation Organization (ORA), a politically oriented association allied with the Great Patriotic Pole and one of the two religiously oriented parties validated by the electoral authority. The other is Bertucci’s.
According to official information, there was “absolute support” for Maduro at that congress. The count included 120 national delegates representing 17,000 evangelical churches located in 20 of the country’s 23 states. The spokesperson for the activity—a representative from ORA who had served in Maduro’s government—asserted that “over eight million evangelicals pray for the nation.”
The evangelical hierarchy attempted to deny this support. Days after the evangelical event endorsing Maduro, the president of the Evangelical Council of Venezuela, Samuel Olson, rejected any partisan activity linking them.
“The evangelical people are not politically belligerent. Our fundamental principle is the separation of Church and State. We do not recognize the declarations of any religious representative or religious movement as if they were the collective voice of the evangelical people in general,” he stated.
These words echoed among representatives of various Venezuelan evangelical federations and confederations, with over 45 years in the country. They stated that the 100 attendees at the evangelical congress supporting Maduro did not represent them and were instead leaders of churches lacking substantial influence, where participants sought the promised productive projects offered by Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.
The evangelical vote remains diverse and has grown in recent years. In the Constituent National Assembly (ANC), a superpower established by Chavismo under the pretext of drafting a new Constitution, there is no worship committee as exists in the regular parliament. However, actions executed in that arena stem directly from the Somos Venezuela movement, founded by Nicolás Maduro and its national coordinator, Delcy Rodríguez. This political movement is responsible for the “beautification” of the city.
When the Venezuelan Constitution of 1999, promoted by Hugo Chávez, adopted religious and cult freedom broadly, it fractured the relationship that governments had previously had with the Catholic Church, which soon became a critic of the Chavista project. This allowed other currents to aspire to occupy spaces once held exclusively by the Roman Church, leading to growth in their temples’ congregations, enabling them to enter political and economic arenas.
In the past 20 years, public policies related to religious freedom and worship have become more evident. A puritanical liberalism has spread among military and civil sectors, endorsed by senior officials in ministries and public powers sympathetic to these changes and evangelical doctrines.
In Venezuela, evangelical Protestantism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormons, which comprised 18% of the confessing population until 1998, climbed to 29% by 2006, while the influence of Catholics dipped from 75% to 70%. According to the Evangelical Council, the pentecostal doctrine experienced the most growth.
Thus, places of worship within the National Armed Forces (FAN), public state institutions, penitentiaries, and even educational institutions began to visibly increase their presence. This was notably the case for General Gustavo Rangel Briceño, former Minister of Defense; Ronald Blanco La Cruz, former governor of the border state of Táchira and former ambassador to Cuba; and Captain Edgar Hernández Behrens, former superintendent of banking sector institutions (Sudeban), former president of the Economic and Social Development Bank of Venezuela (Bandes), and former president of the now-defunct Cadivi.
In 2012, an Anteproject of the Law of Worship was proposed in the National Assembly, then dominated by Chavismo, which had been circulating since the Interior Policy Commission but gained momentum with the establishment of the Permanent Committee on Worship and Penitentiary Regime. While not openly admitting it, it represented the germ of an intention to break with the Vatican Concordat, although this was never formalized.
Furthermore, the legalization of organizations for religious purposes was promoted through the Cults Directorate of the Ministry of Interior, Justice, and Peace, which achieved the registration of 6,000 churches within 18 months, while in the previous 40 years, only around 4,000 had been registered. By 2018, there were nearly 17,000 evangelical churches. The states witnessing the most significant growth of alternative congregations included Aragua, Falcón, Zulia, Bolívar, Carabobo, and Lara, as indicated in official information. Overall, there was a record of 19,700 civil associations with religious aims in the country.
The Evangelization 2.0
The Maranatha Church of Venezuela claims to have 16,000 congregants in the country, according to its website. Although migration has also reduced the regular attendance by 4,000, the church seeks to overcome this setback, having a greater internet and television presence, as stated by Javier Bertucci himself.
Despite accusations of corruption, indoctrination, and money laundering on social media, the reputational campaign defending the pastor, his family, and the institutions he presides over, is stronger. He occupies spaces across all channels in the digital ecosystem, both as a personal brand and as the main image of the civil association El Evangelio Cambia and the movement Hope for Change.
This is another characteristic of neo-Pentecostal evangelicals, who globally encompass around 300 million followers. It encapsulates media presence and mass evangelization across various platforms, through which they exert significant influence over public and political decisions.
“So the call of this message is towards mass evangelization. We have made great efforts to return to national television, and we’ve started to appear in the mornings as we once did,” Bertucci announced this past May, having started his religious career at a young age in the central state of Cojedes, in the town of Tinaquillo. It’s the same town where Cilia Flores, Nicolás Maduro’s wife, hails from.
Despite the announcement, there are no televised programs featuring the pastor on Venezuelan national television, though he does have a YouTube channel with over 64,000 subscribers and his own radio station, El Evangelio Cambia 96.3 FM. His capability, and that of the Maranatha Church—with over 700 branches in dozens of countries, including Europe and Africa—to monetize resources is evident and forms part of a discourse he consistently defends. The channel of El Evangelio Cambia has over 146,000 followers, and Maranatha Venezuela has over 87,000.
This establishes the closure of Bertucci’s movement circle, now with political weight and municipal representatives, and a straightforward step towards funding, given that a resolution from the national customs system allows tax exemptions for organizations with religious purposes.
“When someone says, ‘the pastor is stealing tithes,’ tell me about it. I invite you to sustain this church for a month. Come on. Not to mention where we’ve come from and having faith for every single thing here and what we’ve done out there. But if you say, ‘I believe…’ Come here and pay everything we pay, including television programs and all that… That is for the brothers who keep saying, ‘something’s missing here.’ Don’t criticize, put in your part… I’ve handed the control of this over to Pastor Paco, Pastor Giovanni, to the administration, because I don’t depend on this. My source and provider is Jesus,” Bertucci proclaims.
**This article is part of the Faith Transnationals project, a collaboration of 16 Latin American media outlets, led by investigative journalism from the Columbia Journalism Investigations team at Columbia University (United States).
The Latin American partners are: Agencia Publica (Brazil); El País (Uruguay); Ciper (Chile); El Surtidor (Paraguay); La República (Peru); Armando.info (Venezuela); El Tiempo (Colombia); La Voz de Guanacaste and Semanario UNIVERSIDAD (Costa Rica); El Faro (El Salvador); Nómada and Plaza Pública (Guatemala); Contracorriente (Honduras); Puerto Rico’s Research Center; Mexicans Against Corruption (Mexico); and the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism, CLIP.
Tags: CNE, corruption, Javier Bertucci, money laundering