President Nicolas Maduro: A 21st
century version of Marie Antoinette,
he, his predecessor and their cronies have reaped
incredible wealth
even as lately, Venezuela's population has sunk deeper
into poverty.
Criminal Chavistas Plunder Venezuela; Aid Jihadi Networks (El Tiempo,
Colombia)
"Chavismo, which ascended to power as a plea for honesty in
a country exasperated by corruption in the old parties, has in 15 years
squandered an unprecedented bonanza: more than $550 billion in oil profits. Yet
the poverty rate rose by 10 percentage points in the last four years! … Obama has
Caracas in his cross hairs for supporting jihadist networks, which include
giving Venezuelan passports to terrorists and providing bank accounts for this
network of corruption. To be an accomplice of Maduro is to be complicit in political
repression, corruption, and indirectly, aiding jihadi terrorism; nothing more
and nothing less."
"To be rich is bad; it is inhuman I would say!" once
exclaimed Venezuela President Hugo Chávez. He forgot to explain that so radical
a definition didn’t apply to members of his family or those belonging to leaders
of his revolutionary movement, now led by Nicolás
Maduro. Journalistic and judicial investigations in Venezuela, Spain and the
United States have put the focus on the enrichment of kindred of Chávez and
other leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution.
The parents, brothers and daughters of the late president
apparently own 17 estates in Venezuela, the value of which is estimated at $10
million, along with $200 million in foreign bank accounts. This explains the
luxuries - a fleet of Hummers, gold and diamond rings, expensive watches with
sapphires - sported by a family which before Chávez seized power, had only a farm
in Barinas. According to the opposition National Assembly members, at the time
of the president's death the family fortune exceeded $550 million.
Chávez' example spread to other revolutionary leaders. Three
former deputy ministers, a former intelligence chief and a high-ranking
executive of [state] oil company PDVSA figure in a
money-laundering scheme involving an Andorran bank that has recently been
investigated and shuttered, together with its sister-bank in Madrid. U.S. and
Spanish anti-laundering agencies talk of more than $4.2 billion, an amount that
can only be the result of the shady dealings of these privileged sons of the Revolution.
Venezuela Now Needs Brazilian Moderation, Not U.S. Belligerence (Folha, Brazil)
HerveFalciani is a systems
engineer who worked for years in the Swiss branch of HSBC Bank. On his list,
created when he copied thousands of documents related to secret bank accounts
of people from many countries, appear companies set up by PDVSA
that were used as private piggy banks by its senior management, such as Alejandro
Andrade, who rose from being a member of Chávez' bodyguard to be National
Treasurer and then president of the Economic and Social Development Bank of
Venezuela. Venezuelan deposits in these accounts amounted to $31 million, a
majority of which is suspected to be of corrupt origin.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Diosdado Cabello, a strongman of the Chavista Congress, is similarly tarnished. A German bank
reported to Venezuelan authorities and to European anti-laundering bodies it
has deposits of over $21 million under Cabello's name.
These cases of corruption are heinous crimes as ordinary
Venezuelans wait in long lines in search of toilet paper, diapers and food staples.
Chavismo, which ascended to power in 1998 as a plea
for honesty in a country exasperated by corruption in the old parties, has in
15 years squandered an unprecedented bonanza: more than $550 billion in oil
profits. Yet the poverty rate rose by 10 percentage points in the last four
years!
However, responsibility for this rests not only with the
corrupt Chavistas. It extends to those in UNASUR [Union of South American Nations] and several
foreign ministries in the region who criticize Barack Obama for pointing out
the scourge of corruption in this regime and its repressive policies toward its
opposition. Obama has Caracas in his cross hairs for supporting jihadist
networks, which include giving Venezuelan passports to terrorists and providing
bank accounts for this network of corruption. To be an accomplice of Maduro is
to be complicit in political repression, corruption that has plundered the once
bountiful coffers of the country, and indirectly, aiding jihadi terrorism; nothing
more and nothing less.
