A frontal shot of Tareck El Aissami. Photo: Archive.
This Tuesday, at a press conference, Attorney General Tarek William Saab shared new revelations from the ongoing investigation related to the PDVSA-crypto corruption plot. In this case, Tareck El Aissami and Joselit Ramírez were found to have used public funds to finance operations linked to opposition media outlets.
In his testimony, Samark López spoke of a slanderous media campaign mounted against several officials of Nicolás Maduro’s government. Public funds were used to pay journalists and some anti-Chavista figures based abroad who were responsible for spreading false information and attacking the president on social media. Likewise, they extorted thousands of dollars to “soften” the media outlets in question.
“We are going to show how, within PDVSA, the group headed by Tareck El Aissami financed an extortionate media structure to propagate slander and wage a campaign to discredit the state authorities,” said AG Saab. “Of all the plots, perhaps this is the most disgusting, because it combines corruption, political conspiracy, and extortion.”
The tentacles of El Aissami
Samark López said that El Aissami controlled an extortionate media structure which he used to attack people who did not align with his plans or interests. Likewise, the prosecutor detailed that this parallel payroll was created by a political operator whose name López said he did not know, but that it was paid for by one of El Aissami’s financial operators, Joselit Ramírez.
In this sense, Saab reported that El Aissami had a ghost list of alleged communicators, many of them identified as “influencers”, to launch smear campaigns against a person or group. The amounts mentioned in relation to these campaigns were between US $30,000 and US $100,000.
It was learned that the people and platforms involved in this scheme received or continue to receive funding from USAID. Names such as Daniel Lara Farías, Wender Villalobos, Norbey Marín, Sebastiana Barráez, and Maibort Petit came to light. As well, there was a relationship with the ArmandoInfo outlet directed by Roberto Deniz and Ewald Scharfenberg.
However, Samark López’s statement indicates that the subject identified as Juan Almeida was in charge of multiplying the impact of these campaigns through ghost accounts which they paid for and maintained through social media networks such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
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Biased investigations
The prosecutor questioned that said “information” outlets never carried out investigative reports regarding the embezzlement carried out by the putchist Juan Guaidó and his followers.
“Those people handled fortunes without discretion,” said AG Saab. “They have deputies elected in 2015 on their payroll and whose term expired in 2020. They administer ad hoc meetings to take the money. Where are the reports? There are none nor will there be any.”
Finally, Saab repudiated these actions which he described as disgusting, and stated that it is necessary to reveal them to raise awareness among the Venezuelan people and so that the hybrid warfare mounted against Venezuela can be understood. He also highlighted that everything was done “to conspire, legitimize capital, and amass ill-gotten fortunes. It was not enough for them to have ghost ships, but they also had this extortionate media structure to attack the state authorities.”
Finally, he sent the message to the population that the Public Ministry is increasingly closer to the people and will render justice where it is due. In this sense, he highlighted the successful activity carried out in the streets throughout the country, as part of the Public Ministry’s “Attend Your Complaint in the Parish” program.
“We will continue forward, providing justice and fighting for the peace of this country,” said AG Saab, “looking out for our people and at our adversaries square in the face, with the strength to be on the right path.”
(RedRadioVE) by Victoria Torres
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/KW/SL
