Message to INFODIO readers: investigative journalism, which is what this site does, takes lots of time. Visiting media looking for a quick run down on Venezuela's gargantuan corruption, have the decency to at least cite the source when plagiarising this site's content without attribution (exhibit Reuters here and here, exhibit Bloomberg here, exhibit OCCRP here). To all readers, do the right thing, the honest thing: support independent investigative journalism, help us expose rampant corruption. Note added 28/06/2021: impostors are using INFODIO's former editor's full name, and a fake email address (alek.boyd.arregui at gmail.com) to send copyright infringement claims / take down requests to web hosting companies (exhibit Hostgator). The attempt is yet another effort paid by corrupt thugs to erase information about their criminal activities. Infodio.com has no issues with other websites / journalists using / posting information published here, so long as the source is properly cited.
Little to add to yesterday's historical U.S. Department of Justice's (DoJ) news about narco terrorism, corruption, and drug trafficking charges, brought in superseding indictment (see below) against Nicolas Maduro and some of the thugs that form Venezuela's "government".
Persistent rumours about a super indictement against Nicolas Maduro, Cilia Flores, Tareck el Aisami, and Diosdado Cabello are making the rounds. It would be President Trump's administration way of ratcheting up pressure on chavismo, and according to sources could go as far as including Venezuela in the list of States Sponsors of Terrorism along Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.
The good thing about the now-official bankruptcy of Victor Vargas' ALLBank in Panama is the amount of evidence of corruption that it will produce. A cache of internal documents from ALLBank seen by this site shows that Vargas' operation was little more than a money laundering platform.
Nicolas Maduro is in a bit of a pickle: the Trump administration has recognised Juan Guaidó as legitimate President of Venezuela and, crucially, Carlos Vecchio as his official U.S. Chargé d'Affairs. What this means in practical terms is that the U.S. government will only talk business with Guaidó through Vecchio. Maduro's retort?
This site has learned that high officials of Donald Trump's White House shut down an interview Nicolas Maduro gave recently to FoxNews. Journalist Maria Elvira Salazar, on unofficial assignment / agreement with FoxNews, met and interviewed Maduro in Caracas. The interview was translated to English, with the purpose of broadcasting it in FoxNews to send a message to the Trump administration, about Maduro's intentions to establish some kind of dialogue. White House officials intervened, censored the whole thing, and the interview ended up being aired, in Spanish, in Univision.
It is not an exaggeration to say that in many Venezuelan homes, regardless of politics, there's a weapon. The website gunpolicy.org cites some stats: "The estimated total number of guns (both licit and illicit) held by civilians in Venezuela is 1,600,000 to 4,100,000... In a comparison of the number of privately owned guns in 178 countries, Venezuela ranked at No. 27... Unlawfully held guns cannot be counted, but in Venezuela there are estimated to be 1,100,000 to 2,700,000".
"When you're not allowed to think for yourself, when you're not allowed to have, and voice, an opinion, insofar as such opinion is contrary to the diktats of the ruling party, you lose the only thing that makes us human. You become like an object in a meaningless life, and such life is not worth living. So I decided to rebel against that system and I had no fear of dying, for living in such condition was akin to being dead."
Nicolas Maduro was at his very best last Friday. He said: “Debería prohibirse que gente que no viva en Venezuela sea dueña de un medio de comunicación. Me parece una buena idea, hay que estudiarla". Translation: "it should be forbidden for people who don't live in Venezuela to own media." Hear it from the horse's ass'es mouth in the video below.
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