On the morning of May 18, 2024, a local Noah’s Ark was set to fly from Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, serving Caracas: a shipment of 1,825 live animals from 62 species awaited boarding a Boeing 767 cargo plane operated by the Polish airline SkyTaxi.
Among the captive creatures were twelve Orinoco caimans, 50 giant river otters, 13 ocelots, 20 military macaws, 50 scarlet macaws, two harpy eagles, 75 giant anteaters, 25 tapirs, 94 spider monkeys, 15 white-faced capuchins, and 138 Arrau turtles, among other species classified as vulnerable and critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
This marked the beginning of a 15,000-kilometer journey for this embassy of Venezuelan wildlife, which also included 40 individuals of the Venezuelan troupial (Icterus icterus), declared the national bird since 1958. The destination: India.
The unusual export’s details were verified in two invoices, numbered 0298 and 0299, dated May 17, 2024, accessed by Armando Info and the Süddeutsche Zeitung of Munich, Germany, for this joint coverage. Both invoices were issued by Criadero San Antonio Abad C.A. in Venezuela, addressed to Greens Zoological Rescue & Rehabilitation Center (Greens) and Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (Radhe), key organizations in Vantara, the largest wildlife sanctuary in India and one of the most populated in the world.
Both Greens and Radhe have been dedicated for nearly a decade to rescuing and caring for mistreated animals in India, with a special focus on elephants, while also assembling wildlife from around the world, resulting in a colossal zoo: Vantara.
However, Vantara’s laudable mission is literally marred by a geographical detail with heritage connotations: it was established within Reliance Industries’ petrochemical refining complex, the world’s largest, located in Jamnagar, Gujarat, on the northwestern coast of India. Reliance, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s and India’s richest man, is also a significant client of Venezuela’s state oil company, Pdvsa, due to its crude oil purchases.
These and other substantial shipments of animals from Venezuela to the Ambani family’s zoo in India have the necessary permits, according to the Ministry of Ecosocialism (Minec), which issues them through its very own Directorate of Biological Diversity, representing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), of which the country is a signatory. However, details reveal that this ministry has been conducting a constant campaign from Caracas to promote and establish partnerships with wildlife breeders in the country, including San Antonio Abad, the exporter of last May’s shipments.
A Bestial Ambition
In Vantara, everything is superlative. Opened on March 5, 2024, today, just a year later, it boasts housing around 200 elephants, 300 felines, 1,200 reptiles, more than 3,000 herbivores, among many other species – approximately 150,000 animals representing about 1,200 species, according to calculations from the Indian press. Within its 1,225 hectares, it also hosts the world’s best-equipped elephant hospital, offering unique services to pachyderms, such as Ayurvedic massage centers, hydrotherapy pools, and special kitchens.
No one can verify those figures. In addition to the megalomania of the project, there is an air of secrecy. No one knows for sure the mortality rate of the species inside, the conditions in which they are confined, whether experiments are being conducted on animals, or if they are breeding unchecked. Concerns also arise about the harm that specimens may suffer from emissions from the adjacent petrochemical complex.
Environmental organizations, wary of the rapid accumulation of animals at Vantara, are raising alarms about the uncertain origins of imported specimens, which may come from illegal hunting or unregulated breeding and captivity. However, in a communication sent to the authors of this story, Vantara’s representatives defend the legal origins of the animals received at the sanctuary: “Our facilities have never participated nor will they participate in the buying and selling of animals, as proven by the competent authorities and confirmed by court rulings. We are subject to rigorous regulatory controls and periodic inspections. Our mission is to promote animal welfare and conservation, which includes supporting poorly managed breeders and facilities to reform their operations for the benefit of wildlife,” they stated in the message.
The director of Vantara is Anant Ambani, the youngest son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani. The latter is the executive chairman and owner of Reliance Industries, with a net worth of around $120 billion, according to Forbes’ 2024 rich list.
Mukesh Ambani maintains very close ties with India’s populist leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who personally inaugurated the zoo in Jamnagar. But beyond that connection to political power and his own fortune, the most resounding demonstration of the influence that the billionaire and his family hold was the recent wedding of Anant, the son of the magnate and director of Vantara. Reviews of the event circulated beyond the entertainment pages due to the extravagance of the celebration and the list of invited personalities—from Mark Zuckerberg to Bill Gates or Ivanka Trump—who enjoyed a Rihanna concert and a safari-themed party held at the facilities of the newly established Vantara zoo as part of wedding galas that extended over several months in 2024.
For this story, information was also requested from Greens Zoological Rescue & Rehabilitation Center (Greens) and Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (Radhe), representatives of the Vantara sanctuary and zoo in India. Their responses are still awaited.
What is verifiable, in any case, is that Venezuela did not escape the insatiable demand for exotic animals from Vantara and the ultra-rich Ambani family. And that there were those in the country who met that demand abundantly.
The invoices from May 17, 2024, supporting the shipment from San Antonio Abad embarked in Maiquetía accurately match the number of animals and the nomenclature of the taxon (scientific naming in Latin for classification of botanical or zoological species) recorded in the customs documents obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung in India. It is undoubtedly the same shipment.
The Venezuelan wildlife breeder San Antonio Abad did not clarify whether the prices per unit and the totals for each group of species on the May 2024 invoices correspond to the dollar value of the exported animals, which would give a commercial character to these transactions with a supposed conservation goal (global regulations prohibit the buying and selling of endangered animals; they only allow exchange between academic centers and zoos for scientific purposes).
However, in a written response to reporters, the legal representative of the Vantara sanctuary clarified from India that these documents are actually CIF forms (“Cost, Insurance, and Freight”), which only serve as a reference for the payment of transportation, insurance, and customs duties and not as proof of payment between the parties.
Willing Suppliers
This substantial shipment was not the only export of wildlife from Venezuela to the Vantara sanctuary in 2024. According to customs figures in India, between May and December 2024, Venezuela exported up to 5,359 wild animals to Greens and Radhe. With this, the South American country became the second-largest supplier of wildlife to the Vantara zoo, only behind the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Out of that total, 3,300 wild animals (52%) were exported by the private breeder San Antonio Abad, from which, for instance, 45 giant river otters (Pteronura brasiliensis), 53 military macaws (Ara militaris), and 100 scarlet macaws (Ara macao) were shipped, three species listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) with the highest degree of endangerment, which necessitates enhanced controls and safeguards for their commercialization.
According to the international trade database Importgenius and the Indian Customs Department, this company also dispatched animals from species listed in CITES Appendix II, including 90 giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), 68 opossums (Didelphis marsupialis), 10 howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus), 93 common marmosets (Cheracebus torquatus), 33 northern spider monkeys (Ateles hybridus), and 37 tapirs (Tapirus terrestris). Appendix II lists species that could face extinction threats if their trade is not regulated.
San Antonio Abad began its live animal export activity in 2022, a venture that did not halt even due to the criminal investigation ordered against it by the Public Ministry in August 2023.
By email and WhatsApp messages, inquiries were made to the lawyers of the 88th Prosecutor’s Office regarding the progress of the investigations against San Antonio Abad, but no response was obtained by the time of publication.
Apart from San Antonio Abad, a second private zoo in Venezuela appears in wildlife trade records in India for 2024: the Ex Situ Conservation Center and Mundo Safari C.A. breeding facility, based in Pedregal de Tabay, Mérida state. Its owner is veterinarian Adrián Carrero, also the technical director of the National Foundation of Zoological Parks, Breeding Centers, and Aquariums (Funpzza), affiliated with the Ministry of Ecosocialism (Minec). He advises private zoos and facilities linked to the National Parks Institute (Inparques), such as Los Chorros de Milla in Mérida and the Caricuao Zoo in Caracas. The exporting breeding facility takes its name from Carrero’s first venture, which included the Mundo Safari Pet Shop and Mundo Safari Veterinary Clinic, both located in the Andean capital.
In 2023, this center formed a strategic alliance with Minec for the breeding, conservation, and training for the release of Andean raptors such as the condor (Vultur gryphus). However, it also engages in exports, as evidenced by customs records from India showing that it sent five King Vultures (Morphnus guianensis) and one bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) to Greens that same year.
In December 2024, also according to India’s customs data, the Ex Situ Conservation Center and Mundo Safari C.A. exported to Vantara a shipment of 2,059 specimens, representing 38% of the total exported by Venezuela to India last year. This shipment included species from CITES Appendix I such as 34 giant river otters (Pteronura brasiliensis), 10 ocelots (Leopardus pardalis), three pumas (Puma concolor), and five Orinoco caimans (Crocodylus intermedius).
Additionally, the export reports from the Mundo Safari breeding facility highlight specimens from CITES Appendix II: 99 Cuvier’s dwarf caimans (Paleosuchus palpebrosus); 32 giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), nine tapirs (Tapirus terrestris), 23 howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus), and 14 anacondas (Eunectes murinus).
Charges and Echoes of Eco
Regulations and technical requirements make massive reproduction and breeding of wild species for commercialization purposes virtually impossible. So, from where did the over 5,000 animals sent to India in 2024 by two Venezuelan entities originate?
Luis Miguel Faría Vieira, the legal representative of Criadero San Antonio Abad, asserts that the wild animals gathered at his facility come from exchanges among centers with frequent births, as well as from seizures and voluntary handovers recorded in entry books and reported to the CITES authority in Venezuela. Simultaneously, he says, he conducts releases of species into their natural habitats.
“Currently, most endangered species are no longer at risk. Breeding has been vital to preventing animals from going extinct. This has been made possible thanks to the operations of breeding facilities,” he stated in a communication, dated March 11, 2025, sent by email at the reporters’ request.
However, he refused to provide figures and descriptions of the methods used to gather wild species: “I should not expose my activities, nor mention details of them, as the information is confidential, and I must make sustainable use of my data and reasonably utilize all tools.” He offered to show invoices in person.
He also admitted that the relationship with Vantara dates back to 2022.
For its part, the Ex Situ Conservation Center and Mundo Safari did not respond to the information request sent via email and WhatsApp.
While they stand out in the exporting field, Criadero San Antonio Abad and the Ex Situ Conservation Center Mundo Safari are just two among 35 centers dedicated to breeding, conservation, and protection of wildlife in Venezuela that are authorized by Minec.
Those seeking to trade in wildlife on the international market or simply send them to other countries need to possess the specific certifications provided by the international CITES platform, which is represented in Venezuela by the Directorate of Biological Diversity of Minec, an organization that has, in fact, signed strategic alliances with these profit-seeking entities, promoting them to carry out programs advertised as conservationist. In this area, the Ministry of Ecosocialism acts as both regulator and interested party.
Regarding this, the Director of Biological Diversity at Minec, Juan Carlos Santander, who represents CITES in Venezuela and is therefore authorized to approve the commercialization of species, confirmed that both private breeding facilities export wild animals for the Vantara sanctuary in India as part of a conservation agreement between the two countries. “The transfers between Venezuela and India were conducted with complete transparency under valid CITES export permits, recognized internationally under the convention, leaving no room for ambiguities regarding the legality and legitimacy of these movements,” he stated in a letter sent on March 7, 2025, to the reporters of this story.
Santander assured that, in particular, San Antonio Abad, registered under number MIX-01-19-15, meets all the requirements set forth in Venezuelan national legislation and adheres to the guidelines of Venezuelan ex situ wildlife conservation centers in line with the “ethical principles of environmental protection.”
The official claims that all species on the Red List exported to India by San Antonio Abad were not illegally hunted but obtained through procedures such as “relocation, deposit records, exchanges between legal centers, seizures, and voluntary handovers.” He adds that births in captivity have been recorded in the breeding center’s control books and reported to CITES for inventory updates.
He says the same about the Mundo Safari breeding facility: “Both breeding facilities comply with quality standards and current national and international regulations,” among which he cites the General Standards for the Registration and Operation of Parks, Zoos, and Aquariums from 1997. Other requirements that the exporters would have complied with, according to Santander, are the pre-export quarantine and the elaboration of Non-Detriment Findings (NDF) according to CITES, as well as Legal Acquisition Findings (LAF). He mentions that each animal “was subjected to rigorous health controls to ensure biosecurity, species safety, and compliance with standards.”
But that rigor turns into precariousness, many critics from environmental movements point out, especially when it comes to the risky transport of live animals, particularly when the transfers are of very long distances.
This is something that can be inferred, for example, from the discrepancy between an export invoice from San Antonio Abad, which registered the shipment of 708 animals purchased by Greens in May 2024, and the customs record upon arrival three days later, which documents the receipt of 657 animals. Where did 51 specimens go? A similar discrepancy is observed in another shipment from that month, where San Antonio Abad declared the shipment of 1,107 individuals and Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare reported the arrival of 1,076 animals: a difference of 31 individuals.
Luis Miguel Farías from San Antonio Abad rejected the idea that there were discrepancies between the number of animals sent to India and those received: “No animals died during transport.” He reiterates, instead, that there has been a 100% correspondence between the animals authorized for export and those received. “This is well documented in the official records,” he emphasizes, even though the customs documents reviewed for this report suggest otherwise.
“The animals I send to importers always arrive in optimal condition and alive; I guarantee technical and scientific standards in their handling,” he elaborates in an email communication. Farías claims he possesses the facilities to transport live animals according to the regulations of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and follows the measures suggested by Vantara’s specialized personnel and the cargo airline, leaving “no room for error or complication.” This is something that, for their part, Vantara’s spokespersons in India corroborate in their letter to reporters: “All transfers are conducted in strict compliance with IATA standards and guidelines, established by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) of India. Whenever necessary, our veterinary experts accompany the animals during transport to ensure their well-being.”
The mentioned Venezuelan wildlife shipment on May 18, 2024, required transportation proportional to the number of mammals, birds, and reptiles being sent to India: a Boeing 767-300F cargo plane, registration SP-MRG, from SkyTaxi, with a cargo capacity of 58 tons. The Polish SkyTaxi has been accused of participating in global wildlife trafficking by organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which denounces cruelty to animals. In June 2024, another organization, Action for Primates, warned from Mauritius of a 26-hour SkyTaxi flight transporting 50 macaque monkeys from that island in the Indian Ocean to Texas.
Thus, the ecosocialist discourse of Minec spreads its purpose for the conservation of wildlife in Venezuela, one of the countries with the highest biodiversity on the planet, while defending the involvement of private breeding facilities in programs and agreements that are publicized as protectors of threatened wild species. However, it remains unclear whether these purposes align with their simultaneous readiness to meet the demands of a billionaire on the other side of the world, whose extravagant megazoo is the subject of numerous questions.
*This investigation was conducted in partnership with the Süddeutsche Zeitung of Munich, Germany.
