Venezuela: Politics and Criminality

January 17, 2019 Opinion , OPINION/NEWS , South America

Reuters photo

By

Ricardo Swire

Venezuela’s political machinery recently inaugurated the president for his second term, despite evident human rights violations and exposes of support for notorious criminal organizations. On January 10, 2019 Venezuela’s top politician replicated his May 2018 victory to clench a second presidential term. During this period one confidential national security report chronicled the scenario of Christian Zerpa, a Venezuelan Supreme Court Judge who hastily fled to the United States.

On January 6, 2019 the senior adjudicator escaped to Orlando, Florida, after accusing Venezuelan government officials of violating the “Separation of Powers.” According to the Judge, a six member executive branch syndicate manipulate court rulings and masks illegal activity. Transnational drug traffickers routinely utilize Venezuelan smuggling routes controlled by government officials under the moniker “Cartel of the Suns.”

The shadowy powerful Venezuelan military sect mainly traffics cocaine. Cells operate within the Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard. One of Venezuela’s internal security most critical positions is the National Guard boss. A former Major-General and Cartel of the Suns member is named in an American charge sheet for drug trafficking. In 1993, after two National Guard Generals were discovered to be doubling as drug traffickers, ‘Cartel of the Sun’ was coined to reflect their military rank insignias.

The July 2018 law enforcement probe dubbed “Operation Money Flight” ensnared Venezuela’s Globovision news network president Raul Gorrin. America’s Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) implicated the senior media executive in fraudulent transfers worth US$200 million, dispatched to the spouses of Venezuela’s first-lady bank accounts. He is also intimately associated with more than US$1.2 billion laundered via state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.

The OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals & Blocked Persons (SDN) List was revised to include seven Venezuelans business leaders. One such top executive, the Globovision president, bribed key state officials to conduct his illegal currency exchange worth US$2.4 billion. Venezuela’s politics and criminality further embrace in the shadows of “Chavismo.” Internal security reports alert that since January 7, 2019 heavily armed pro-government squads called “Colectivos” were activated in Caracas to re-enforce political will. Venezuela’s political strong-arm tactics are supported by the Colombian criminal organization Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) incursion.

Twelve Venezuelan states or half the country, mostly mining areas, are now controlled by the Colombian guerrilla group. ELN units have advanced one thousand five hundred kilometres from Colombia’s border with Táchira state Venezuela. Originally the guerrilla group entered Venezuela through states bordering Guyana and Brazil. One intelligence report mapped a trail of ELN weapons provided by Venezuelan Armed Forces personnel, who also facilitate cross-border entry. Evidence is collaborated in Tachira where the government’s Local Storage & Production Committees (CLAP), via the military, allowed ELN members to distribute nationally subsidized food.