Venezuelan government shows new evidence of destabilization attempts by extreme right-wing groups, this time in complicity with the former mayor of Maracaibo. teleSUR
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00:00We'll go live to Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello's offering statements.
00:06This is Mr. Juan Manuel Larva, who is the president of the Institute, Juan Manuel Lara
00:14Villalobos, the president of the Urban Municipality of Mau, and Mr. David Villalobos Ortega,
00:27this citizen who is called Alberto Silva. So far, it has been controversial, his functions
00:41on the mayor's office, but what is true is that he has a great power to decide and to manage
00:47resources. Some people say he was the manager of resources, and there is Mr. Pedro Guanipa,
01:00former director of the mayor's office, former director because he's already arrested,
01:11and he's the brother of Juan Pablo Guanipa and Tomas Guanipa of that same family,
01:18Tomas Guanipa of that same family, and then it is Mr. Alberto Pucci.
01:29Pucci was a hired man who was paying people
01:38and Alberto Silva. All of this has been pointing directly that one of the involved is Juan Pablo
01:54Guanipa. We say this with all steadfastness of the case because it is one of the people who have
02:06defended the things that we cannot defend, and he has been in solidarity with criminals.
02:16He has to do it because he's part of it, and we have testimonies of some of them that we are going
02:26to present, and some others we cannot present yet, and it is crystal clear that this is a
02:35corruption plot, and in process of dismantling in the mayor's office of Maracaibo, and these
02:57are not the only ones involved. There are more people involved, and here there's a group of
03:08people, Mrs. Margarita Asensa, general director of the private secretary of the mayor's office,
03:18and Diana Barros, and Diana Patricia, who's been on search, and so we have the statements of them,
03:29and some of them have been holding accountable of what they did, and so I am going to share
03:37with you some information from the less to the higher seriousness, and so we will listen to
03:48Margarita Asensa. Let's put the video. The total financing of the mayor's office
03:57has been provided by Luis Alberto Silva, and
04:08all of which has to do, all of the resources of the mayor's office has been out of,
04:16but another point is the president, however, the director Miriam Ramos was accountable for
04:29these operations, and regarding the political mobilizations that I could observe,
04:41all of these mobilizations were paid off by another person. Well, this is the first part.
04:52The lady said these are seven companies hired in the Maracaibo municipality for collecting garbage
05:13from the southeast Maracaibo. Who else is from Maracaibo? Do you know the disaster in which
05:20Maracaibo is in tons of garbage, and they have seven companies hired with the same purpose,
05:31and that the stalling of state resources has been there only in the hiring of seven companies with
05:46the same purpose, with restructuring of offices, restructuring of offices with high prices,
05:58and so this was discovered by the audit within this investigation, and I come back to,
06:06for example, this gentleman Pedro Guanipa dispatches from an office of a company
06:18that was hired by the mayor's office. What he said in his defense, let's listen to him.
06:35Three, that's not the mayor, pardon me. Let's start with the mayor. I can tell
06:51that the heads of the parishes, who are a team presence of parishes,
07:00well, when there wasn't, we don't do cuts, but eventually if we have to move the parishes,
07:16and I told you with a lot of responsibility, we gave $100 for the
07:25holocaust, we did so. I need to pay some fees, and
07:41so that was what the mayor said, to pay colleges, to pay batteries, and so on.
07:52So, anyone could think that there can not be any problem in that kinds of activities,
08:02but let's see, the pay on the, how can you pay at the exit of the place? Well, that depends.
08:16So, sometimes we didn't collect the money, but we say some of them
08:27that help with the contribution to, if they were going out of,
08:35how can you pay them? Well, that depends on the situation, because that's the only way,
08:49because if they didn't provide any bigger contributions, it wouldn't surpass $5,000
08:58or something like that. $5,000 multiplied by 28, he asked money to entrepreneurs to pay
09:14those justice officials. I am going to tell you something, the Venezuelan opposition
09:22is bad in the opposing, but it is worst ruling. Every time they take office, to take the post,
09:35they deployed a kind of mob for corruption, and so that another person was detained,
09:46which is, who is Pedro Guanipi, and the main video, we just, let's listen the videos.
09:59Sometimes I have to ask for the money, and I,
10:07so I made the money come to the son of Juan Pablo, and
10:26meanwhile these payments do not appear, and that
10:31I, the director, what was the procedure for making that payment,
10:43and I don't know how the procedure was, maybe it was from a bill or a cash, I am not clear about it,
10:56but, and it appears again, the Mr. Alejandro Silva, Mr. Guanipa said that he didn't know
11:10how the procedure was, but it is crystal clear that he knows the procedure.
11:16This Mr. Alberto Silva, pay attention that he has been named in several times with different
11:26responsibilities, but we are not clear his main role, but it is true that he was taking the lead
11:36in money issues. There were, well, there were $3,000 every 15 days, and
11:49this was paid at the beginning of the year, or maybe at the end of last year.
11:56Well, he said that, that he was talking about $3,000 every 15 days, but actually,
12:10where, where every seven days, and Juan, Guanipa, if you want, you can,
12:19and you can say it is a lie, but I am going to show you the evidence. You can say,
12:29you can, and your brother is going to say in, at which you spent that money, but it is the double
12:39standard. I am not talking about moral, but the double standard of them. I remember the case of
12:46Ronald Carreño, that he spent the money for the operation of children to buy some cars to,
12:57that is the way the opposition acts, the money of, of the surgical operations of children,
13:05of the, that were operations overseas of the Bolivar operation. Mr. Guanipa, Pedro Guanipa,
13:14has another statement to make. My name is Pedro Miguel Guanipa Villalobos,
13:22and ID 7,834,000. Right now, I am a director of the dispatch of the mayor office in Maracaibo.
13:37I am brother of Tomas and Juan Pablo Guanipa, and I am from the party of Primero Justicia,
13:46and I want to express my knowledge of the funding to political activities of my brother Juan Pablo
13:56Guanipa by the mayorship, mayor office in Maracaibo, and that financing surpasses $100,000
14:11per month, and today, through, I know that the, that Alberto Silva is in charge of that operation,
14:24and it is in my knowledge, the financing that Maracaibo's mayor office did for
14:34campaign activities of Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado to support with mobilizations,
14:43cars, food, sounds for those activities, such activities surpass $50,000, and in both cases,
14:54activities have been authorized with the knowledge of the mayor of Maracaibo, Rafael Ramirez.
15:01Without pressures of any kind, this citizen, Pedro Guanipa, talks about that from his mayor
15:14office, they deliver resources. Actually, there were $50,000 per week, and that money was coming
15:25from the collection of garbage in Maracaibo, because they pay it, but they didn't collect
15:32the garbage, and so they financed activities of mobilization of the campaign of Edmundo Gonzalez
15:41when he was at the Zulia State. He said it, this said it, who was one of the active participants
15:54in that, in those acts of campaign, of electoral campaign in the Zulia State.
16:02I must clarify that this is the first delivery. There are a number of officials of the mayor's
16:12office, counselors, that are part of this corrupted mob, that they are part of this
16:24investigation. There are other people arrested, and are at the order of trials, of course,
16:33and we consider necessary to inform the country, and most of all, the Zulia State and Maracaibo
16:41municipality, because they try to manipulate, and I hope that those who have come out,
16:48listen to this conversation of Mr. Pedro Guanipa, and listen to the own mayor,
16:56that he seemed that $5,000 are nothing. If you multiplied by 18 parishes, maybe it is nothing
17:07for them, because they are used to earning the money of the mayor's office for their pockets,
17:15and the lady talked about that since she took office two years ago, this was her routine,
17:26and all a plot of corruption was being dismantled in the municipality of Maracaibo. If you've got
17:33any questions, I appreciate it. Madeline Garcia of Telesur. Hi, how are you doing,
17:40minister? Well, I would like to know that within this plot, and part of that money,
17:50they financed comanditos criminal groups, and in the national assembly, the
17:58legislators are debating on the modification of the law to avoid this kind of situation,
18:05and what scope has this kind of corruption? Well, regarding the campaign,
18:15he pointed out directly Mr. Guanipa and the mayor, but the mayor talked clearer about
18:35their involvement with Manuel Rosales in all these electoral campaign activities.
18:46It is pursuing the policy, the politics, without, we could say that they are not politicians.
18:56They are not politicians. They are people involved with companies taking poses to be richer,
19:06and they see these corruption activities as ordinary, as normal, as a normal fat event,
19:19an event in which they sealed agreements and delivered money to the leaders of their parties,
19:30and let's recall that we presented before the national assembly some checks in which
19:37the Leopoldo Lopez mother was attached to PDVSA, and she takes the money of PDVSA to
19:47construct a political party to his son, because for them, the politics is like that. It's not
19:54the politics of service, and with all certainty, I've got no hesitations, this involvement goes
20:04beyond the, this has to do with the events of violence that have been occurring across
20:17nationwide, and I have no doubts about it. The country must know that we will continue
20:25doing what it is up to us to determine the guilty ones, and the country must know that
20:32any of these incidents will go unpunished. I must say, they are just like crazy,
20:43sending messages to clear this, and there's nothing to be clarified, because this is
20:50not part of the negotiation, and I've been sent, they have sent me a lot of messages
20:58as a minister to reach agreements, but there's no agreements, because the only agreement is
21:04that law must be imposed, and they must know it, and tomorrow they will say that Mr. Ramirez
21:13is a political persecuted, and then tomorrow they will say that Mr. Guanipa
21:20is, was under the effects of whatever, and they must surely prepare, be prepared about it, but
21:30without any pressures, the Pedro Miguel have been talking about how the things work in that
21:39mayor's office. He pointed out Mr. Silva directly, and he mentioned his brother too
21:51regarding this situation. Another question, and the question is by Eliro Rojas of the
22:02Ultimas Noticias Daily and Iguana TV. Good afternoon, Minister. Greetings. Good afternoon.
22:12It has been suggested from your presentation, it is open there, the involvement of this group,
22:22of this criminal group, because it is, they are already on trials, and are charged with
22:30violent acts. I ask, will they have any attached to the latest procedure of
22:39arms seizure in the Zulia state, because you mentioned at the press briefing, when you
22:47referred to the arms seizure, that there were a group in Zulia, they know who they are, that
22:53are involved behind this seizure of weapons, and secondly, what is the responsibility of the
23:04National Directorate of Justice? Well, thank you for your question. This is the leverage
23:13of the delivery by portions, that we can't add things. These are investigations underway,
23:24and the attachments with the bad call, comanditos, criminal groups, there are no hesitations about
23:33the financing of Maracaibo to the Zulia state, and the attachments with violence. There are a group of
23:43people in Zulia state, I presented a US citizen, that had direct attachments in Zulia state,
23:56and that he used as a facade, as a disguise, as an alibi, the religious issue, and so he was
24:09there, disguised in churches, and for that gentleman, they were offering
24:23500,000 dollars, and a million dollars for the police to release him, and so that's the importance
24:30of his involvement with those criminal groups, and with the criminal groups of
24:40of violence, as such.
24:45We will be informing, and providing details of each of what we've been clarifying,
24:56because we have been delivering things
25:05with proofs. So far, no one has said that they are lies. On the contrary,
25:15I said it at some point, that those who were defending Mr. Ramirez,
25:23they would fall by themselves, because it is the same Mr. Ramirez, and the director of the
25:31mayor's office, both of them explained how this plot of corruption has been
25:39explained, how this plot of corruption has been working, and so we will be informing gradually.
25:49You asked for the weapons, and the second question was about, well, pardon me, well,
25:54they are very responsible. They have never taken responsibility of, holding responsibility of
26:02anything. It is their problem, right? Their justice, Mr. Brito, leads far apart from the
26:16Primera Justicia party. They are being fighting each other, accusing each other of corruption,
26:23because when Capriles accuses Borges of bad management, of bad administrative management,
26:31he charges him with corruption, and Capriles heard about this today. He knows it for a long time.
26:41That political direction, Mr. Juan Pablo Guanipa,
26:51surely he will come out to say, and I am going to say to you something, remember a name, Napoleon.
26:58I am only telling you this, because what you will say is supporting this investigation.
27:10For ethical reasons, and for religious reasons, I won't say in which you spent the money.
27:21It is hard for this political organization to take full responsibility for any of this.
27:30They stormed an embassy on April 11. They participated in a coup d'etat, and if you ask
27:40them, they said that they weren't there, so they are just babies. They claim they are just babies.
27:48Well, the last question is by Maria Jimenez from Venezuelan TV. Good afternoon, Minister.
27:56The question is oriented to the recent publications of the Prosecutor's Office
28:03about the detention of former Minister of Oil, Pedro Teixeira, for serious crimes
28:12against the oil industry. From this interior ministry, is there any official statement
28:20about this specific case, mostly about the crusade launched by the Venezuelan
28:28state in the fight against corruption, against any crimes against the nation?
28:35Well, it is not the affair, but I am going to answer.
28:41Across, for this,
28:51the Bolivarian revolution has to take, has to
29:00investigations, investigations to people who have been
29:12in the Bolivarian revolution. Remember the case of Badwell, who then
29:27became praised by the opposition, and at the same time,
29:31Commander Chavez was in front of an investigation,
29:39and maybe President Nicolás Maduro has launched a crusade of fight against corruption,
29:48and all corruption is accompanied, and it is an anti-value accompanied by treason.
29:57And President Maduro has been crystal clear about it. Whoever who is involved in corruption,
30:10in the specific case of Pedro Teixeira, Pedro Teixeira delivered the PDVSA's brain,
30:22and the administration of wells, of operations, of agreements, to the same company
30:30that participated in the coup d'etat in 2002. Innocent. Well, so far, there cannot be
30:41innocent people at those levels. With payments
30:49made by licenses, for example, we don't have the licenses, and I must say
30:59to people that these licenses are not worth $20, but millions of dollars worth.
31:07Putting at risk, putting at high risk the stability of the oil industry in Venezuela.
31:17Again, there, President Maduro has been steadfast, extremely steadfast and firm.
31:27He has been inflexible about it. He does not allow any distortions, any deviation,
31:39and so the prosecutor's office has been investigating about this, and the national
31:46government has done what it takes, what corresponds, and if this would happen in a
31:55political party, if opposition leaders occurred, did this, there will be silence about this,
32:05because it is a complicit society. So, it is a deepening investigation in PDVSA,
32:13and unfortunately, we have to review methods. The Bolivarian revolution is in constant
32:20review of procedures of the exercises of power, of being able to do things, and how you do things,
32:34and so President Maduro has been clear, and the national entities have been crystal clear,
32:42and we regret deeply, because no one has been designated with
32:52the responsibility for them to deliver things to the U.S., and we have to highlight that that
33:02company is a U.S. company, and so it is the same company that they were delivering
33:12the management of the Venezuelan oil industry. Imagine the
33:22abyss in which we were about to fall, and so they were preparing another April 11th,
33:32so we are researching about this, we are looking into this with a lot of expertise,
33:39and of course, the right wing surprises, and every time the revolution acts, and the judicial system
33:50acts, the Venezuelan right wing comes out in defense of these corrupted people involved in
34:02corruption and treason to the homeland. It is very suspicious, just for the analysis and evaluation
34:09of Venezuelans that are listening to us right now, they immediately come out and say that they
34:16are kidnapped, and so it is very rare, it is very strange, right? They go from a successful manager
34:32to a traitor to the homeland, and so if you want to leak in an adversary lines, you have to,
34:45well, I repeated that this is part of the investigation. The Venezuelan state
34:50condemns absolutely any action or act of corruption, and not only condemns,
34:59but the Venezuelan state will persecute until the last consequences any act of
35:09betrayal to the homeland, so delivering the administration the agreements of the main
35:16industry to the government of the United States implies
35:22an act of treason to the homeland. I see it like this,
35:33and as this is the same company of the 2002, so opposition leaders continue defending the
35:49undefensible, but we have the commitment with tranquility, with peace, with the people.
35:58We cannot be bribed or blackmailed, the president cannot be blackmailed, and we are not,
36:07we cannot be blackmailed, and we won't allow any action of this kind. Well, thank you very much for
36:14being here, and this act of corruption in the Zulia state, in the municipality of Maracaibo,
36:21it is a masterpiece and a design of the Venezuelan opposition.
36:30These are, they are bad at the opposition, but are worse, are worse governing, ruling, they are very
36:39corrupted. They cannot see a Bolivar because they stole all the money.
36:49They have been elected to serve as public officials, and they know it.
37:00We were listening to the statements of the interior minister of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello,
37:05the fight against corruption continues in the Bolivarian nation, and the minister was providing
37:09evidence of a new network of corruption in Zulia state, in Maracaibo. He was providing evidence of
37:16how they dismantled this network of corruption within state officials that were elected in this
37:22region of the Venezuelan state, and they were taking funds from the state to fund destabilizing
37:29actions, and to steal from missions that were intended to provide help to the people, like in
37:34the case of one of the, one of the detainees that was in charge of stealing money from Mission
37:40Bolivar that was sending children abroad to have surgery, backbone marrow transplant surgeries,
37:49and they stole this money that will harm the children of the region. So the fight against
37:54corruption continues in Venezuela. The interior ministry will continue to fight to preserve peace
37:58and stability in Venezuela, and like this we have come.