The law firm of a prominent Washington conservative is representing a dubious Venezuelan company with close ties to the Chávez regime, while major conservative news sites self-censor this article.
Al Cárdenas, a public figure, is a staunch Reagan-style conservative. He is the leader of the American Conservative Union, a former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, and was recently described by The New Yorker as the political mentor of presidential candidate Marco Rubio. Al Cárdenas, the businessman, allows his law firm to bid for one of the most corrupt companies ever favored by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela: Derwick Associates.
It’s quite hard to profile Al Cárdenas as a business man and Al Cárdenas as a political figure. Despite numerous requests for comment on the puzzling discrepancy between his public and commercial personas, he refuses to speak with me about it. So, it’s up to those of us who oppose hypocrisy and seek a minimum of consistency to hold political leaders accountable. Especially when these leaders are so vocal and indefinite against “cold-hearted tyrants” yet see no problem when the cronies of the same “cold-hearted tyrant” line their pockets.
My information source regarding the hiring of Al Cárdenas’ firm is a Venezuelan with extensive experience in the energy sector. He claims that Cárdenas’ firm represents (distant cousins) Pedro Trebbau-López and Alejandro Betancourt-López, the owners of Derwick Associates. I was able to independently verify this claim with public records from the Miami Dade County Clerk. When Trebbau-López and Betancourt-López founded Derwick three years ago, they had no prior track record and little experience in the energy sector. But that didn’t matter. Just like the oligarchs in Russia, they became overnight billionaires through questionable, unmonitored concessions. In fact, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution is known for creating its own brand of oligarchs: the Boligarcas.
Thus, Trebbau-López and Betancourt-López went from boring townies with dead-end jobs to traveling the world in private jets, helicopter sightseeing, spending €22.8 million on hunting estates in Europe, and hosting a four-day wedding celebration for 500 guests in Spain — with another happening in Miami this week. In short, a true Bolivarian tale of rags to riches.
Derwick Associates secured 12 no-bid contracts (within a span of 14 months) to build power plants in Venezuela. Conservative estimates would place the total amount of these contracts above $3 billion. César Batiz, an award-winning investigative reporter at Venezuela’s largest newspaper (Últimas Noticias), began to suspect Derwick’s business practices, partly due to his previous work in the electricity sector. Batiz began asking questions about Derwick Associates, just the kind of questions any competent journalist would ask: Why was this company favored over others? Why did the government award so many contracts to a company with no track record? How come there were no public tenders? Who decided what, when, and where? How much public money was spent? Were the projects completed? Who are the people behind Derwick? But Batiz’s persistence had dangerous consequences: the secret police (SEBIN) of Hugo Chávez began harassing his sick mother and him.
Meanwhile, one of Chávez’s closest allies, former Vice President José Vicente Rangel, even announced on television that the Derwick guys are honest businessmen. He declared that their enemies are enemies of the revolution. So Rangel, a declared enemy of the United States, stands on the same side as Al Cárdenas, defending Messrs. Trebbau-López and Betancourt-López.
Mr. Cárdenas’ law firm, Tew Cárdenas, teamed up with a New York litigator in a global, boundary-defying intimidation strategy to protect Derwick Associates and its young owners. Several well-known Venezuelan bloggers, a former Bloomberg correspondent based in Chile, and various international reporters have received threatening letters after inquiring about Derwick or expressing interest in writing a story. Those in Venezuela have faced visits from the dreaded SEBIN.
Ironically, neither journalist Batiz nor Últimas Noticias, which has extensively covered the issue, have been sued. Instead, Venezuela’s top banker, Oscar García-Mendoza, a prominent opponent of the undefined Chávez regime, is the target of a lawsuit from Tew Cárdenas. Mr. Cárdenas’ firm is partnering with Héctor Torres of Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP to represent Derwick and is suing García-Mendoza for $300 million for defamation in Florida. I have been personally named in their lawsuit as a “proxy” for an opposition figure. In a vague statement in Venezuela, they accused me of being “an active agent” in a “propaganda campaign” due to blog posts I’ve written about their corrupt activities. I actually hope to testify in that lawsuit. Besides likely paying Tew Cárdenas a seven-figure sum, Derwick has hired the “gurus” of image consulting at FTI Consulting, retained to harass their critics and spy on detractors. This includes me.
While spokespeople for Mr. Cárdenas argue that he has no ties to the Chávez regime and is not personally involved in the lawsuit (hard to believe considering his law firm has only 23 lawyers, including Mr. Cárdenas), Derwick and its attorneys are sparing no expense trying to silence critics.
When I sent a copy of this article to a conservative website, PJ Media, they asked for an exclusive, stating: “Since this is a big story with significant implications, we participate in events with ACU, CPAC, etc., and I want to ensure this is as solid as possible before we run it. We will read all your links, pieces from other reporters, and anything else. We’d like to consult with Cárdenas’ firm for comments and understand the severity of the harassment threats. Essentially, we want the story and we want to do it right. So, it will be longer than Monday, and we’ll exchange some emails with you as we work it out.” Several days later, after some back-and-forth emails, I received another note from an editor explaining that, despite the “high-stakes information” contained in the article, “after review by management, we’ve determined it’s best for us to stay away from the story.”
I then approached the Daily Caller, a website known for exposing the mischief of Senator Bob Menéndez. Surely, if they have the courage to expose the next chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, they would also expose Al Cárdenas. Again, wrong. Despite praising the article as “interesting” and informing me of the approximate day and time it would be published along with a Cárdenas article – refuting my demonstrable claims – the Daily Caller backed down, saying: “We don’t want to get caught up in a legal mess, and we don’t want to find ourselves in the middle of the internal political controversy of another country.”
Clearly, the threat letters from Derwick’s attorneys are quite effective in silencing critics.
The rampant corruption in Venezuela is not news to Americans, or anyone else. What’s novel is the hypocrisy of the ACU chairman and recent CPAC president, who acts as an accomplice in the persecution of Venezuela’s civil society opposition while defending the worst accomplices of Chávez. Just last year, Cárdenas was handsomely paid to help the victims of Chávez’s political persecution obtain political asylum in the U.S. (Mezerhane et al.). Mr. Cárdenas, a Cuban who fled his homeland at the age of 12 to escape the government of a communist dictator, is now working for the cronies of the biggest supporter of that communist dictator.