$20 million: Cost to kill Maduro and corruption Guaido-style

maduro mayday

Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuelan, said foreign backers financed the failed attempt on his life last summer to the tune of $20 million.

Maduro said the money was distributed to opposition members in neighboring Colombia.

“The plan to kill me that was executed in August cost several million, there is talk of 20 million dollars, said Maduro.

The Venezuelan President was delivering a speech at the Bolivarian Army Academy on Tuesday. The speech was televised on state media.

Maduro thanked the military and intelligence services for warding off the attack and commended them for bravery.

He said, the military and intelligence services saved the peace of the republic.

Maduro said the plan required foreign funding – in dollars. He singled out Julio Borges, a well-known figure among the opposition, as the principal author of the plot.

Earlier this year, President Maduro suggested in an interview with Russian outlet RIA Novosti that US President Donald Trump personally gave the order to have him killed, but provided no evidence to support the claim.

Two explosive-laden drones detonated over a crowd in Caracas on August 4, 2018 as President Maduro addressed the Bolivarian National Guard. The incident was deemed an assassination attempt and a number of opposition figures were arrested in response.

Probe begins into Guaido-led Corruption

Venezuela’s public ministry will investigate the corruption scheme led by Juan Guaido, the U.S.-backed opposition lawmaker who recently announced himself as “interim president”. But the imperialist plan with Guaido as leader failed.

The Venezuela’s public ministry’s announcement came a day after the country’s communication minister Jorge Rodriguez revealed the details of the misuse of “aid” funds. Tarek William Saab, the Venezuelan Attorney General, informed about the investigation in a press conference Tuesday

The investigation arises after a public complaint following a report by the Panama Post online outlet, in which invoices, the theft of some funds that were directed to Venezuelans in the city of Cúcuta, in Colombia were revealed.

According to the Saab, the perpetrators of the fraud were identified as Rosana Edith Barrera Castillo and Kevin Javier Rojas, who also committed unlawful acts for months.

The Attorney General reiterated that Guaido, direct boss of Barrera and Rojas, is considered the intellectual author of this web of corruption.

The prosecutor also noted that “stolen funds have been used for individual personal expenses, alcohol consumption, recruitment of prostitutes and presumably to fund destabilizing acts against the country.”

With this money, a media war had been carried out “with the use of others’ pain and misery,” said the head of the Venezuelan public prosecutor’s office.

Consequently, this investigation was commissioned to national prosecutors on corruption and national competence, who will take the necessary steps to gather evidence of these crimes, explained the country’s top prosecutor.

He pointed out that the funds are directed from Venezuela, therefore, it is up to his office to investigate the origin of these funds and their use. Saab questioned, “if Guaido and his team have not come to power [yet] and are already doing these acts of corruption, what will they be doing with the funds of the Venezuelan Citgo Petroleum Corporation?”

Guaido-style corruption

Jorge Rodríguez, presented Monday evidence of the network of corruption led by the Venezuelan lawmaker Juan Guaido.

Rodriguez revealed screenshots of conversations between Roberto Marrero and a person whom they call “Rossana de Cúcuta”, in which he tells Marrero that he does not have enough money to hire assassins from other countries in Latin America to promote destabilization in Venezuela, to which Marrero promises to pay between US$500,000 and US$700,000 per day in order to hire the hitmen.

For these payments, Marrero also communicated with Guaido, telling him to ask Colombian President Ivan Duque to indicate an NGO to handle funds up to US$1 trillion.

He noted that Rossana Barrera was in charge of helping people with criminal records enter Colombia as military deserters to obtain the funds.

According to the right-wing media outlet PanAm Post, Guaido placed Barrera and Kevin Rojas in charge to handle the aid funds for Venezuelans in Colombia. Barrera is the sister-in-law of the Popular Will party lawmaker, Sergio Vergara, right-hand man of Guaido.

PanAm Post’s editor-in-chief, Orlando Avedaño obtained receipts that “show excesses and, several very strange invoices signed on the same day and with identical writing styles, almost all without a stamp,” for almost a million dollars worth in hotels, nightclubs, restaurants, and lavish lifestyle.

Rodriguez assured the money that was used for these purposes is the money, goods, and resources of the Venezuelans themselves, so it directly affects the health, infrastructure and other sectors of the country.

The communication minister added that although at the beginning opposition lawmakers Gaby Arellano and Jose Manuel Olivares were responsible for fomenting acts of violence on the country’s border, they have now been replaced by Rosana Barrera and Kevin Rojas of the Voluntad Popular party.

Finally, in the case of the deputy Freddy Superlano and his assistant on February 23 in Cúcuta, Rodriguez presented photographs of the two women involved in the poisoning of the lawmaker and the death of his assistant. The women are also suspected of the theft of US$ 750,000, a case that has not been thoroughly investigated by Colombian authorities, according to the senior Venezuelan minister.

The acts of violence financed by such corruption were carried out on February 23 at the border of Colombia with Venezuela , disguised as the supposed humanitarian aid delivered from the United States.


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