Transparency International and Transparency Venezuela They reported that they have official reports that high-level actors in Venezuela are linked to the drug trafficking betrays, using as a bridge the Dominican Republic to traffic drugs to Europe.
In their report “Venezuelan Transnational Corruption: Global Cooperation against Impunity,” the organizations cited that on May 18, 2018, the United States Department of the Treasury established that the current Minister of Interior and Justice of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, organized drug shipments that were moving from Venezuela through the Dominican Republic and from there to Europe.
The United States, which accuses Cabello of money laundering, corruption, drug trafficking and narcoterrorism, has offered a reward of 10 million dollars to capture him since 2020. In addition, for the same crimes, several countries have imposed sanctions on him and for being one of the key figures in the deterioration of democracy in Venezuela and in human rights violations.
For organizations, the Dominican Republic It is a key country in crime and corruption originating in Venezuelawhich is why it deplores that, despite the large investments by Venezuelans accused of cases of corruption in other countries, as well as the seizure of gold, drugs and trafficking networks, have only been registered three research in the Dominican justice.
Transparency He recalled that one of these cases was the one initiated against the Peravia Bank in 2015. The Dominican justice He even issued an arrest warrant against Venezuelan bankers José Luis Santoro, Gabriel Jiménez Aray (convicted in the United States) and Daniel Morales Santoro. Meanwhile, five other executives received convictions for fraud monetary.
“The other two processes carried out by the justice system of Dominican Republic They are linked to illegal gold trading and alleged activities of money laundering by Venezuelan Samark López Bello, investigated by drug trafficking and money laundering in the United States and for other large cases corruption and washed in Venezuela and Portugal,” the report says.
The entity claimed that it does not know the status of the last two. research.
They ask to investigate the network of corruption of senior officials Venezuelans
Transparency International and Transparency Venezuela They socialized this report on Wednesday during the seminar “Dominican Republic and Venezuela: Challenges of justice and citizens against the corruption“sponsored by the non-partisan movement Citizen Participation and with the collaboration of the Due Process Foundation (DPFL) and the Project of denunciation of the corruption Organized Crime Group (OCCRP).
At this event they called for the Dominican justice to pay more attention and allocate resources to investigate the networks of corruption Venezuelan in Dominican Republic.
“In Dominican Republic There are many indications of irregularities that have to do with Venezuelan resources,” said Mercedes De Freitas, director of Transparency Venezuela. “What we want is for them to pay attention to these cases. Because the impunity can’t get out, can’t expand Venezuela“.
The objective of this seminar was to make visible the connections between Venezuelan criminal networks and their influence on the Dominican Republicaddressing issues such as the drug trafficpeople, money laundering, corruption and collusion between local officials and criminal groups.
“The cases we have found show that the facilitators They sell anonymity, that is an important performance for the corrupt actor,” explained Juan Pablo Cadena de Transparency International during his speech. “They take advantage of the gaps in regulation Regarding the transparency of the ownership of the beneficiaries or ultimate ownership of the commercial companies and trusts in order to conceal the identity, because they are politically exposed persons and are therefore subject to reinforced control rules against the money laundering“, said.
Research by the corruption transnational of Venezuela
Transparency Venezuela He said that until August of this year he has registered 258 research of corruption or other crimes involving Venezuelan officials, 168 of these cases are being prosecuted by the justice and control systems of 29 countries, including 60 in the United States, 25 in Argentina, 15 in Spain and 13 in Colombia.
Illicit economies
From the data obtained by Transparency Venezuela It has been determined that the illicit economies (drug traffickingillegal exploitation of gold and minerals, fuel smuggling, extortion, human trafficking) generated $9.402 billion in 2022 and it was recorded that the increase in income generated by this activity reaches 30%, which is equivalent to 13,703 million dollars in 2023. According to the data available for each date, it was estimated that these amounts are equivalent to 15.67% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Venezuelaestimated at $60 billion by 2022 and $90 billion by 2023.
“I think there is a lot impunity in the world of the facilitators, Therefore, legislation must be reviewed.It cannot be that these banks, which are the largest in the world, have laundered billions and their maximum penalty is a fine, which is also paid for by the clients. That is absurd, no one is in jail. So we need to improve legislation and criminal responsibility for these acts of corruption“said José Ugaz, from Taskforce Venezuela.
