Yesterday, I had the chance to participate as an expert in a conference on corruption in Venezuela at the OAS. It’s not every day that such topics are discussed in institutions like this. Despite my desire to be there, and having been invited by Secretary General Luis Almagro, circumstances beyond my control prevented my attendance. Below is a summary of my presentation, “Origin and International Destination of Illicit Venezuelan Funds.“
When discussing the origin of illicit funds from Venezuela, all roads lead to PDVSA. Being the country’s main industry and practically the only source of foreign exchange, PDVSA is the root of almost all corruption in Venezuela. Therefore, I obtained the financial statements from PDVSA’s website (years 2001 – 2016) and made several calculations: oil sales, net profit, costs, contributions to FONDEN, royalties, etc.
When corruption in Venezuela is mentioned, it’s essential to quantify and put into basic terms the size of the problem.
PDVSA Income Compared to the Marshall Plan and TARP.
In blue, we have the Marshall Plan, an international aid program that helped reconstruct 18 European countries after World War II. The cost of this program, adjusted to current dollars, was 100 billion.
In yellow, we see TARP, an acronym for a financial aid program executed by the U.S. government to revive the American economy after the 2008 banking crisis. The cost of that program, all adjusted to current values, was approximately 450 billion dollars.
Then we have PDVSA, represented in a bright red by Rafael Ramirez, which received income from oil sales between 2001 and 2016 of 1.305 trillion dollars. We’re talking about trillions, a massive number.
For those struggling to comprehend these amounts:
– They rebuilt Europe with 100;
– They revived the largest economy in the world with 450;
– PDVSA received 1,305, while people die of hunger in Venezuela.
This serves as a simple outline of the enormity of corruption in Venezuela. If we add the 180 billion dollars of internal and external debt issued by Chavismo during the same period, 2001 – 2016, we arrive at 1.485 trillion. Considering the full period of Chavismo in power, from 1999 to the present, the income is even greater.
Where is the money? Where did it go? Part of it is within the OAS itself, meaning in the coffers of some member countries. CARICOM is a group of Caribbean nations, many of which belong to PETROCARIBE: a supposed cooperation program invented by Hugo Chavez around the year 2000. Cooperation since then has boiled down to: oil in exchange for votes (in the OAS), in exchange for diplomatic favors, intelligence, advice, and elements of repression.
Jamaica owed 3.2 billion dollars to PDVSA; the Dominican Republic 4 billion. Instead of chasing every last cent, considering the impoverished state of the country, Chavismo decided to forgive half the debt.
Cuba, the first member of PETROCARIBE, has been receiving unknown quantities of oil since 2000. For example, between September 2017 and February 2018, PDVSA sent crude and other derivatives to Cuba (Cubametales) worth more than 300 million dollars. In December 2018 alone, over a million barrels of crude, diesel, butane, and jet fuel were sent in six shipments, with an approximate cost exceeding 55 million dollars. This occurs while the majority of Venezuelan children suffer from malnutrition.
The Nicaragua under the bloodthirsty Daniel Ortega received over 4 billion through PETROCARIBE, basically to buy the necessary toys to kill a people rebelling against rampant corruption and the dictatorial government of Ortega. Almost 500 murders funded by Venezuelan money.
Therefore, it’s crucial to indicate that some of the stolen money from Venezuela is distributed across those nations whose only cooperation has been to support Chavismo, Castros, and the likes of Daniel Ortega.
Next, we have the U.S., one of the favorite destinations of the bolibourgeoisie. An army of real estate advisors, bankers, lawyers, lobbyists, politicians, and public relations experts have ensured that those who have bankrupted Venezuela live a life of the most obscene luxuries, enjoying access to the best clubs, banks, residences, all in plain sight without authorities in that country, for many years, asking the first question about the origin of such fortunes. The bolichico Alejandro Betancourt acquired the Onassis penthouse thanks to JP Morgan; Alejandro Andrade lived lavishly while his son posed as an influencer for years without question; Victor Vargas purchased the most expensive mansion in Palm Beach; Coco Capriles has his family installed, as do the Oberto, the thug Morales Divo, the favorite money launderer of Chavismo, David Osío—essentially, the architects of Venezuela’s destruction and the theft of hundreds of billions, travel and live comfortably in the U.S.
But illicit funds from Venezuela aren’t just welcome in the Americas. Spain, now rivaling the U.S. as a preferred destination, welcomes all bolibourgeois and Chavistas seeking to launder their ill-gotten gains there. Nervis Villalobos, Javier Alvarado, Luis Carlos de León, Rafael Reiter, Gustavo Mirabal, the Khalil brothers, Jesus Vidal Salazar, and Aarón Ortega, along with Neri Bonilla, Juan Carlos Escotet, Victor Vargas, Coco Capriles, Axel Capriles, Miguel Angel Capriles Lopez, Moris Beracha, Alejandro Betancourt, Pedro Trebbau, are just some of the more known “Venezuelan businessmen” whose “fortunes” are being washed in Spain, all in plain sight, without issue.
Switzerland, which has no shortage of bankers ready to embrace ill-gotten gains from Venezuela, has dealt with all the individuals mentioned. They all have accounts there. Venezuela was the country with the largest amount of money deposited in HSBC—more than 11 billion dollars, which Alejandro Andrade managed with absolute discretion. The Oberto family received just in one month, 1 billion dollars at EFG bank, originating from PDVSA accounts in Espírito Santo, Portugal. The Derwick pests set up their own bank (Credinvest) while they were using Gazprombank for their dodgy dealings.
Other European countries are involved at levels that are hard to justify. Andorra, with a GDP of just over 3 billion dollars, saw more money flow through one of its banks (Banca Privada D’Andorra) in money laundering schemes linked to PDVSA, in which Rafael Ramirez and almost his entire family and immediate collaborators are implicated. The same goes for Portugal. The United Kingdom was used by Samark Lopez and Tareck el Aissami to triangulate through front men the acquisition of goods, while lawyers and former police officers in this city are knee-deep in all sorts of schemes, even to this day, with PDVSA.
Millions of billions mean a lot. Corruption is, without a doubt, the cause of the humanitarian crisis because if the money hadn’t been stolen, the country and all its inhabitants would be in a privileged situation. There is no possible justification for Venezuela to be in its current state, with that level of income, no matter how much we have to reduce costs. Colombia, the country with the largest number of displaced people (7 million), has approximately double the population of Venezuela, where emigrants have mostly decided to leave since 2015, not after decades of armed conflict with narcoterrorist groups.
Millions of Venezuelans do not leave the country due to insecurity, lack of justice, or democracy, but due to a shortage of food, medicine, and basic necessities. From hunger. And this is directly and absolutely attributable to corruption.
Countries in the hemisphere must do more, much more, to prevent situations like that of Venezuela in the future. It’s irresponsible to watch a country get looted to ruin and pretend that nothing is happening or to excuse it with the absurd argument of non-interference. The exodus of millions of Venezuelans makes the problem global. All the corruption in the entire American continent does not compare to that of Venezuela. I would venture to say that there is no similar case in the world like that of Venezuela/PDVSA.