Mayor Alberto Sobalvarro Durán is amassing power. And not just political power.
As a professional economist and a member of the official United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Sobalvarro has been serving as the mayor of the Almirante Padilla municipality in Zulia state, located in the northwest of Venezuela near the Colombian border, since November 2021.
The canton includes the island of Toas and its surroundings. Although this territory, known as the Barra del Lago de Maracaibo, which separates the marine waters of the Gulf of Venezuela from the freshwater lake, has both a strategic location and exceptional beauty, it is tiny, almost uninhabited, and impoverished. It’s so remote that its own mayor, Sobalvarro, does not live there but rather commutes from Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia, located an hour and a half away by road and boat transfer. The circulation of illegal goods of all kinds also occurs in Almirante Padilla, and there seems to be little indication that a successful enterprise could emerge from there.
But that’s precisely what the local Chavista mayor is achieving.
A recent publication by ABC Color newspaper in Asunción, Paraguay, revealed that Sobalvarro, from this forgotten corner of Venezuela, is listed as the owner of Du Mont Trade, a conglomerate of companies for importing cigarettes into Venezuela and other Caribbean destinations. Among the brands he manages are several from the portfolio of Tabacalera del Este S.A. (Tabesa), a company frequently identified as supplying the Latin American cigarette smuggling market and which is under U.S. sanctions. Former Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes, who has been the subject of both journalistic and police investigations for alleged illicit activities for decades, has also faced sanctions from Washington and was previously the owner of Tabesa, from which he formally divested his shares.
Partners and Subordinates in the Same Boat
Sobalvarro cultivates a polished image that further distinguishes him from the fishermen and traders in the area, his constituents. He dresses with understated elegance; his typical attire includes a guayabera and a short-brimmed hat. During his occasional tours of the regions he governs, he is often accompanied by his wife, María Luisa Barrios, whom he refers to as the first combatant of the municipality. On social media and in the press, he also makes use of revolutionary jargon and slogans.
However, in a LinkedIn profile highlighting his degree in Economics, Alberto Sobalvarro Durán appears as a financial advisor to a firm bearing his name. Meanwhile, in another account on that professional networking platform, he identifies as president of Du Mont Trade Tobacco International Corporation, a company registered in Panama in 2012.
This Du Mont Trade is just one facet of a larger business polygon.
The records in Panama show the creation of the firms Du Mont Trade Panama Corporation and Du Mont Trade Isla Corporation. The former was established in 2004, but Sobalvarro Durán only assumed full responsibility for the company in 2007, while the latter was incorporated in 2008. In both, he shares leadership roles with his ex-wife, Zulay del Carmen Barbosa Urdaneta, and Rodrigo Vargas Núñez.
Vargas Núñez is a part of Sobalvarro’s inner circle. In addition to being the mayor’s business partner, he is involved in the municipal administration. In a management report for the fourth quarter of 2023 in Almirante Padilla, there is a resolution dated September 14, 2023, designating Vargas Núñez as president of the Corporation for Export, Import, Marketing, and Services Nigale, C.A. (Corponigale C.A.). This municipality-affiliated firm is responsible for the wholesale purchase and sale of national or foreign goods from various sectors of the local economy, prioritizing fishing, aquaculture, supplies, and general services.
Currently, all of Sobalvarro’s and his partners’ companies in Panama are suspended due to failures to pay the required registration fees, but this did not prevent other Du Mont entities from emerging in different Caribbean jurisdictions: Du Mont Trade Venezuela, C.A., Du Mont Trade Dominicana, Du Mont Trade Trinidad & Tobago LTD, and Du Mont Trade Grenada LTD, each registered in their respective countries. Alongside this geographical expansion of his market, international records reveal requests from Du Mont to market cigarette brands such as Meridian, GIF, Record, Astor, Belmont, Eight, Voox, G, Kentucky, Cónsul, Mr. B, Miller, Mr. B, Recife, and Belfort, including Tabesa’s brands.
In 2018, the Du Mont holding transferred the power to act on its behalf to Alberto de Jesús Sovalbarro Núñez, the mayor’s son, who was already a public servant in the Chavista state by that time.
That same year was when, coincidentally or not, the cigarette market in Venezuela began to change in composition. The rise of a new company, Mundo Factory, started to threaten the traditional leadership of Cigarrera Bigott (part of British American Tobacco, one of the world’s leading tobacco companies). A publication by Armando.info in 2024 determined that Mundo Factory is a conglomerate linked to relatives of the first lady or first combatant of Venezuela, Cilia Flores. Additionally, it distributes products from the Paraguayan Tabesa, among other suppliers.
Before their partnership in the Du Mont holding, in 2008, the trio of Sobalvarro, his ex-wife, and Vargas Núñez also registered Immobiliare Investment Panamá Corporation S.A. in the isthmus. As they would with Du Mont in 2018, Sobalvarro Núñez, the mayor of Almirante Padilla’s son, became president of that firm.
Simultaneously, Rodrigo Vargas Núñez – a partner in all the companies – established Caribbean Coast Trading S.A., a company that included Omar Melicio Galué Troconiz and Douglas Alfredo Pirela Leal on its board of directors. All of them have also held official positions in the Almirante Padilla municipality: the first served as the general director of Prevention, Security, and Public Order from July 26, 2023 to October 27 of that same year; the second has been the mayor’s office director since January 2022 until the present. Additionally, in 2021, he served as the electoral campaign chief that propelled Sobalvarro to the municipal mayoralty.
On the international e-commerce platform 52wmb, Panamanian Du Mont Tobacco shows cigarette exports from 2013; Du Mont Trade Grenada LTD exported between 2017 and 2019.
Industry experts informed Armando.info that today in Maracaibo, illegal cigarette brands, such as Time, Carnival, and Pire, comprise around 73% of the market; therefore, according to these figures, only one in every four cigarettes smoked in the Zulia capital is from formal brands. Due to its proximity to Colombia and the ABC islands – Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao, previously known as the Dutch Antilles – Zulia is a region historically vulnerable to smuggling. As a reflection of this tradition, the greatest distribution of the Time brand in Maracaibo is generically attributed to “los guajiros” – referring to the Wayuu ethnicity from La Guajira Peninsula, which is split between Colombia and Venezuela.
The headquarters of Du Mont in Venezuela is located in a Maracaibo building that shows no signs of the company’s presence. It does not appear in the National Contractor Registry.
On social media, two other individuals associated with the group emerge: Cristina Acevedo, “administrator at Dumont [sic] Trade,” and Omer Reyes, a retired sergeant from the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), who details in his Facebook profile that he is a quality control supervisor in foreign trade at Du Mont Trade Venezuela. Reyes was also performing, at least until July of 2022, as the Director of Prevention, Citizen Security, and Public Order for the Almirante Padilla mayor’s office.
To the Left of Charisma
Those who dare to speak about Alberto Sobalvarro describe him as a despot and vulgar, which is contrary to the image he projects. “He thinks he owns the world and that money is everything,” asserts a private sector worker familiar with the dynamics in Almirante Padilla. These characteristics did not prevent his mayoral candidacy from appealing to voters: he garnered 3,599 votes – equivalent to 69.59% of the ballots – in 2021 and has recently announced his candidacy again under the name of the so-called Great Patriotic Pole, the electoral coalition of Chavismo, for the upcoming local elections scheduled for mid-2025.
Those who knew him in the past report that Sobalvarro has always been sympathetic to the left. This seems to affirm what the current mayor recounted during the presentations of his government plan: “In my third year [of high school]… I was already a communist and got involved in politics.” A testimony gathered by Armando.info clarifies that Sobalvarro was actually “from the youth of the Electoral Movement of the People [MEP, a social democratic leftist party split from Acción Democrática in 1968], but he never held a leadership role.”
One source consulted claims that Alberto Sobalvarro Durán is close to Néstor Reverol, former Interior Minister, former commander of the GNB, and current president of the Corporation for the Development of the Zulia Region (Corpozulia). He has also been photographed at PSUV events alongside former Vice President Diosdado Cabello, now the Interior Minister. However, few doubt that his relationship with Omar Prieto, the former governor of Zulia state from 2017 to 2021, was what catapulted his political career. Prieto, who sought to distance himself from the controversies triggered by his management in the state government, is still involved in politics from his hometown of San Francisco, south of Maracaibo.
A person who knows Alberto Sobalvarro Durán from his university days, and who requested anonymity, states that the current mayor graduated as an economist from the University of Zulia (LUZ) “in the late 1980s.” He remembers him as an irregular student: “He would drop out and then return. Back then, it was said in the hallways that he was a ‘businessman’ involved in business,” he stated.
In 2017, the now-mayor appeared on the list of candidates for constituent assembly members from Almirante Padilla. One consulted source reported that during those years, Sobalvarro partnered with Prieto – then recently elected governor of Zulia state – and Lisandro Cabello, the secretary of government. This allowed him to “create and strengthen connections that defended and promoted his candidacy at the regional level for mayor, overcoming the internal resistance he faced within the party.” The conclusion drawn is that “these two [Prieto and Cabello] coordinated with Pedro Carreño, a National Assembly deputy and very close to Diosdado Cabello, to defend Sobalvarro in Caracas. The three were the political operators of his candidacy.”
In 2019, Alberto Sobalvarro was appointed by Omar Prieto as the new president of the Santa Rita Racetrack, located on the Eastern Shore of the Lake, while he continued his role as a representative in the illegitimate Constituent Assembly convened by Nicolás Maduro, which essentially performed legislative functions previously belonging to the National Assembly – then controlled by the opposition – instead of drafting a Constitution. Soon, Governor Prieto and the director of the National Institute of Racetracks (INH), Antonio El Potro Álvarez, signed for the reactivation of horse racing activities in Santa Rita.
His love for horses is not new. In an interview with Armando.info, the source who discussed Sobalvarro Durán’s past stated that he was “the owner of a farm or ranch where paid riding lessons were given.” He also participated in the VII Horse Fair of the Paso, Riders, and Amazon Riders in Maracaibo-Chiquinquirá in 2011, as the owner of two finalist horses. In 2012 and 2013, Sobalvarro served as president of the organizing committee for that same event. Only in 2022, while serving as mayor, did Sobalvarro post a video on his Instagram account bidding farewell to one of his horses as “my faithful specimen” that was born in 2000 and had traveled all over Venezuela to win “12 grade A championships.”
As a constituent, one of his main lines of action was the proposal for the creation of the International Free Trade Zone of La Guajira, which he presented on January 29, 2020, to “promote the economic, social, cultural, and human sustainable development of the Colombian-Venezuelan border, following the economic directives issued” by the high government. With this proposal, which did not succeed, he would have achieved extensive tariff freedoms that, while possibly serving as an incentive for economic activity in the impoverished region, would have also de facto regularized the endemic activity of smuggling.
Armando.info attempted to contact Mayor Alberto Sobalvarro via social media and his email, but no response had been received by the time this report was finalized.
Under Siege
The previous government (2018-21) of the Almirante Padilla municipality, led by fellow Chavista Héctor Nava, ended with very low approval ratings. Sobalvarro sensed an opportunity early on in the growing rejection of Nava to capture the mayor’s office, which he had aspired to since 2013. With renewed vigor, his political marketing strategy included social giveaways from his role as a constituent and later through various foundations promoted by Prieto’s government. He served as the general director of the Social Foundation Nigale Mía and also led Fundafuturo, an institution engaged in social and political work in Almirante Padilla.
In this way, he became a persistent thorn in Navas’s side, who never acknowledged it. It wasn’t until 2020 that a public statement from a group of “revolutionary councilors” loyal to Sobalvarro reflected the burgeoning rivalry.
In October 2021, during the campaign, former governor Omar Prieto, along with candidate Sobalvarro, took a walk in Isla de Toas. During his address, Prieto declared, “the people will not allow traitors to govern in these lands again,” referring to the opposition party Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), which controlled the municipal government from 2000 to 2008.
As mayor, Sobalvarro would send an open letter to Nicolás Maduro in January 2023. In the letter, he requested fuel supplies for the municipality after exhausting unheeded governmental efforts in the region, according to his account.
The last recorded public protest in Isla de Toas dates back to 2020, demanding gasoline for watercraft. However, just because that was the last protest doesn’t mean discontent has vanished; it reflects the success of Sobalvarro’s social control and surveillance measures.
Since Alberto Sobalvarro’s arrival as mayor, any manifestation of discontent or political opposition has been neutralized by a tight territorial control mechanism, a practice he has refined over the years. Currently, the government’s grip in Almirante Padilla is absolute. “For everything, there has to be a permit from the mayor. Without his consent, nothing is executed. Gasoline and diesel, which are essential for fishing and water transportation, are also under his control,” two consulted sources agree.
“People have no voice or vote. They communicate through their gaze. What you see most is hunger. I dare say there is no dissent. You can’t speak about deficiencies for fear of being reported,” concluded one of the interviewees.
Everyone knows one another; any intruder that arrives is identified. Visitors mention the presence of hooded motorcyclists patrolling public spaces, providing clear evidence of surveillance. It is common to find civilians and officials from the Prevention, Citizen Security, Public Order, and Civil Protection Directorate (Dpscop) communicating with each other via radio in different locations throughout the municipality. It looks like an occupied territory where the strict ideologization is imparted by the PSUV.
A young interviewee who spoke to Armando.info, preferring to remain unnamed due to fear of reprisals, stated that two years ago she was stalked by security agents posing as civilians while she attempted to take photographs in communities within the municipality. “They know when someone isn’t from there. People didn’t want to speak with us; they were scared. The atmosphere was very hostile. We had to flee. I would never return,” she admits.
The poverty that studies demonstrate in Almirante Padilla contrasts with the constant promotion by the mayor, for which he spares no resources. For instance, earlier this year he presented his 2025 Management Plan in Maracaibo. At the event, held at the Inter Maracaibo, a five-star hotel, all directors of the Almirante Padilla Mayor’s Office, as well as deputy directors, coordinators, Municipal Council members, presidents of autonomous institutes, and family members were present. An informed source explained that the municipal administration staff was transported by water to the San Rafael de El Moján dock in the Mara Municipality, and then by two buses to the Zulia capital. “The presentation included breakfast and lunch for all attendees,” assured the source.
A Zulia politician interviewed for this report told Armando.info that “the municipality [Almirante] Padilla, with some exceptions, has had bad luck with its mayors; but this one [Sobalvarro] has broken all the molds (…) He has criminal groups under his command and has subjugated the people.”
Although some assert that Sobalvarro’s political ambitions are directed at the governorship of Zulia, an individual with knowledge of the internal situation within PSUV stated that “he is not a player, he hasn’t managed to transcend. He has always been a second-tier leader in the region. There’s like an open secret that holds him back, the weight of being involved in the illicit. But with this municipality, he has already crowned.” This makes sense if his goals are not just political and if he continues to leave a trail of cigarette smoke in his wake.
* A reporter contributed to the coverage of this story in Zulia whose name is being withheld for safety reasons.
