Internal Conflicts Reveal 'Ya Casi Venezuela' Scam

By Misión Verdad – Oct 2, 2024

The recent updates on the Ya Casi Venezuela coup attempt show a rapid decline from what was initially expected of it. The enthusiasm lasted only a few hours when it finally came to light. Currently, amid open condemnations and conflicts surrounding the initiative, the lack of credibility and indications of fraud related to the campaign have been visibly exposed.

Founders, their backgrounds, and rivalries over resource management
In a recent interview with Patricia Poleo, Gustavo Lainette, associated with the far-right party Voluntad Popular, acknowledged his role as the ideologue of the initiative, in collaboration with four other people, including brothers Andrés and Alejandro Vera. However, he was removed from the Ya Casi Venezuela project before the launch of the publicity campaign that preceded it due to internal frictions within the founding group.

Lainette explained that the original intention was to raise funds to finance a “private intervention in Venezuela,” with US businessman and mercenary boss Erik Prince as a key contact. According to Lainette, a firm linked to Prince was advising the Vera brothers in a case related to scamming.

The Vera brothers are at the center of a scandal related to Fxbitcapital, a platform that operated as a pyramid scheme.

Together with Gustavo Enrique Vera Espinoza, they founded this company that promised high returns on investments in the foreign exchange market. However, in reality, the company used the funds from new members to meet the demands of those who had invested previously.

The Vera brothers were linked to the multi-level company Bydzyne, where they promoted Fxbitcapital and received commissions for attracting new investors. In 2023, the scheme collapsed, affecting more than 3,000 people and generating losses of about $200 million.

The NGO Resistencia Venezolana, registered in the United States and led by Lainette, was supposed to serve as a platform for raising funds for the Ya Casi Venezuela campaign. According to him, disagreements arose regarding the guarantees that he asked for in order to protect his organization against possible fraud accusations, which ultimately led to his exit from the crowdfunding.

The Vera brothers proposed to him a deal for managing the resources in such a way that, instead of transferring the funds directly to Prince, they would be converted into cryptocurrencies to generate a 30% return.

Currently, the Ya Casi Venezuela website only accepts cryptocurrencies as payment methods.

Lainette is also involved in controversies related to other cases of fundraising for supposed humanitarian aid during the self-proclaimed “government” of Juan Guaidó, when none of the funds reached their intended destination.

In this way, individuals with a proven history of fraud, due to differences and conflicts among themselves, are exposed as the visible faces of a proposal that seeks to raise $10 million in a murky and opaque manner.

Jumping ship before the ship is wrecked
The interview corroborates the accusations previously made by the first vice president of PSUV, Diosdado Cabello, during a recent press conference.

Cabello stated that Gustavo Lainette was the initial architect of Ya Casi Venezuela but that, due to disagreements with María Corina Machado, he was replaced by a close collaborator of hers. The opposition leader sought to prevent Lainette, who is Leopoldo López’s associate, from having control over this coup plot.

“I am close to Leopoldo; I have witnessed his struggle and I have a good relationship with him and several members of Voluntad Popular,” Lainette said in the interview with Poleo. He also admitted that “a political team” joined the project, although he did not specify whether it was María Corina Machado’s group, and that this team established a network of communicators to promote Ya Casi Venezuela.

In this context, serious irregularities also emerge. There is evidence that the collected resources are being used to pay influencers, journalists, and other public figures with the aim of boosting the campaign and attracting more donations.

Journalist Roberto Carlo Olivares, for example, revealed that he received messages from the organizers of Ya Casi Venezuela, inviting him to promote the project in exchange for economic incentives amounting to between $500 and $3,000.

Regarding Iván Simonovis, who distanced himself from the crowdfunding despite continuing to support the campaign, Lainette said that he was called upon as a key figure to lend credibility to the project. Simonovis’ inclusion in the plan can be interpreted as a strategy aimed at generating certainty among radical sectors of the Venezuelan opposition that advocate for a violent overthrow of the government.

‘Ya Casi Venezuela’ Signifies a Crossroads for the Opposition

An imminent failure
On September 26, Erik Prince gave an interview in which the questions were carefully structured, a clear publicity stunt. His responses lacked clarity regarding the fundraising process and the strategies to be followed to achieve the stated objectives.

Instead of offering concrete answers to the fraud accusations, Prince resorted to rhetorical devices to fuel the hopes of the supporters of Ya Casi Venezuela, suggesting that the fall of the Venezuelan government is imminent.

He distanced himself from the responsibilities for the failure of the campaign, stating that he only intended to “share ideas” and act as a “catalyst for change,” but that ultimately “it is the Venezuelans who have to reclaim their country.”

This behavior appears to be a constant among the individuals involved in this plan, as the inconsistencies regarding its implementation become interconnected and accentuated. María Corina Machado herself stated in an interview that she has no connection with the project.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office has announced that it has a list of the people who openly participate on the platform. Attorney General Tarek William Saab stated that the initiative operates with mercenaries and individuals who are “fugitives from the Venezuelan judiciary” and reside in the United States.

The Ya Casi Venezuela strategy is crumbling even faster than María Corina Machado’s narrative of non-recognition of the electoral results, which suffered a severe blow with the departure from the country of former candidate Edmundo González and the revelation of the details surrounding it.

The far-right opposition’s failed call to march on September 28 was another sign of the declining influence of this extremist sector among the Venezuelan population.

In the end, both projects share a similar pattern: the construction of an artificial hope for the opposition bases without a concrete plan and with clear lack of transparency.

But as the outcome looms, the case becomes even more compromising for the image of those involved, as it evokes strategies still fresh in collective memory, used in the Guaidó operation, which manipulated and defrauded its followers internationally under the false promise of a regime change.

In this scenario, it is not surprising to consider, as President Nicolás Maduro has already hinted, that María Corina Machado could follow in the footsteps of Edmundo González: a self-imposed exile that would represent the pinnacle of defeat of the latest coup attempt against the nation.

(Misión Verdad)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/SC/SA