The corrupt mayor of Maracaíbo, Rafael Ramírez. File photo.
The first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, complained that the taxes collected in the municipality of Maracaibo, Zulia state, were used by the mayor of the municipality to finance actions of the far right through a wide network of corruption.
During the broadcast of his program Con el Mazo Dando on Wednesday, October 2, Cabello stated that it is “a chain of corruption” and that “a lot of people are involved.”
“All the taxes collected in the municipality of Maracaibo were to be handed over to far-right political parties, and some that are not far-right,” he said.
Cabello noted that although the mayor had been warned that an audit process would be carried out, those involved continued with their actions.
“An audit by the Comptroller’s Office was conducted, and it is there, but everything is so evident that the Public Ministry and the state security agencies have had to act,” Cabello stated, referring to the arrest of the mayor of that municipality, Rafael Ramírez.
He added that sectors of the opposition continue to label public officials arrested for corruption as “political prisoners.”
Possible flight of María Corina Machado
Cabello commented that there is a possibility that the opposition politician María Corina Machado might leave Venezuela due to the actions of former candidate Edmundo González Urrutia in Madrid, Spain, where “he is playing his own game, and in his equation María Corina is being pushed further away.”
He added that Machado fears that Urrutia’s betrayals “will force her to leave Venezuela, for this reason she has arranged everything through two routes, one through a Central American country and another through a European country.”
Revision of electoral participation law
Regarding the process of reviewing the electoral laws, as proposed by the National Assembly, Cabello said that PSUV “will ask for a review of the entire issue of participation,” including who can participate and who cannot.
“If you have called for an invasion against your country, you cannot be a candidate. In other parts of the world, you would be in prison,” he emphasized.
He also expressed support for the National Assembly’s decision to invite representatives of the political parties and social movements that participated in the July 28 presidential elections to join the review process.
(Últimas Noticias) by María Eugenia Rodríguez
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/
