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Journalist Patricia Poleo revealed yesterday that Monómeros -one of those assets that Juan Guaidó & co took over- paid $60,000 to Antonieta Mendoza de López -otherwise known as Leopoldo López's mother- for a "report" entitled "Discovering Guaidó: man of persistence"
Poleo's report is well worth the 22 minutes. She highlights a few interesting connections. Leopoldo's mummy works as Vice President of Advocacy LatAm of Llorente y Cuenca (LLYC), which pitches itself as "a global communication, digital marketing and public affairs consultancy firm."
As per documents shown by Poleo, LLYC got $60,000 from Monómeros, a Colombia-based PDVSA subsidiary under Guaidó & López's control that’s been in the news recently for rampant corruption. Assets under Guaidó's management have all been turned into cash cows, basically, but beyond the he said - she said squabble Colombia's government decided to step in and took control of Monómeros. Presumably to avert further scandals down the road.
Another interesting fact revealed by Poleo is that Nelson Rivera, (remember him?) assisted Lopez's mum in the "production" of the report. In case readers forgot about him, Rivera is none other than Derwick Associates' PR man-cum collaborator of LLYC's Vice President of Advocacy LatAm. Remarkable stuff from a "public affairs consultancy firm", isn't it, that of being associated with the very worst white collar criminals Venezuela has ever produced. Rivera's collaboration with Leopoldo López's mother is not tenuous: let us recall that Derwick's boss Alejandro Betancourt has Guaidó's brother and father under his thumb, i.e. when the interim leadership can't steal its own way, it gets financed by the likes of Betancourt and Raul Gorrin. The fact that Betancourt's partner Francisco Convit spends his time between Caracas and Los Roques, on the run from DoJ and totally unencumbered by chavista justice, suggest a fluid conduit between chavismo, Boliburgeoisie and the opposition.
This site keeps hearing about how the new board of CITGO, also under Guaidó & López's control, is mired in corruption. Some obscure political operators involved with Monómeros are meant to be dabbling in CITGO. How many questionable payments of the type given to López's mother will be found there?
We have also heard that U.S. Treasury and DoJ are keeping a keen eye on Lopez -particularly- and on CITGO's management. The state of delusion of people close to López is such, that they believe Treasury and DoJ will forever be under spell they've cast over State Department officials.
Additionally, this site knows of CITGO's contractors who have not being paid for services rendered on the excuse of OFAC sanctions constraints. Interestingly, payables for services provided date from before sanctions were imposed, involve non-U.S. businesses, yet are still outstanding.
CITGO's reported results for 2020. It claimed "a net loss of approximately $(667) million for the year... The Company also paid $93 million in dividends to CITGO Holding, Inc." This site reached out to Horacio Medina, to ask clarification on the above. It will be interesting to see who is providing CITGO with an "average of 638,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) of crude oil" -in light of OFAC's sanctions on PDVSA- and what sort of vetting process was implemented by Guaidó's folk for procurement.
Venezuela will continue being a source of embarrassment for the USG, regardless of who sits at the top. This is not a party-politics issue, but one of profound naïveté. Guaidó's the "man of persistence" insofar as persistent corruption is concerned. American politicians, on both sides of the aisle, giving lengthy standing ovations during State of the Union to Guaidó, aren't going to look very good in future years. The minute serious probes are launched into it, all involved in aiding and abetting utterly corrupt Venezuelans will be tainted.
