From doors to chickens, through the Coporación Venezolana de Comercio Exterior (CORPOVEX) (Venezuelan Corporation of Foreign Trade), the government of Nicolas Maduro hoarded imports to Venezuela under the classic “revolutionary” imprint: giving almost absolute power to a soldier, a man who set up businesses using the State´s money, with no control whatsoever, fostering a network of intermediaries. The import registry systematization in Puerto Cabello shows that that state company became a black box that put an end to private import.
The Coporación Venezolana de Comercio Exterior (Corpovex) (Venezuelan Corporation of Foreign Trade) is the heart of the business of Nicolas Maduro´s government. In their offices -up to three different headquarters the organization has had since its creation at the end of 2013- almost everything related to public imports has been decided: what is bought, at what price and to whom. It´s about operations covered by a mantle of opacity that up until recently depended on the major general Giuseppe Yoffreda Yorio and that today are under suspicion of the United States for maybe having benefited businessmen from the presidential circle.
The download and systematization of almost 71,000 import records from the customs office of Puerto Cabello, the main Venezuelan port, corresponding to the period January 2014 to January 2018 confirms the size of the state monster created by Maduro and gives clues about the nature of the suppliers.
The organization of the information in a database developed by Armando.Info reveals that Corpovex was the second largest recipient of merchandise in that period only behind the also state Corporación de Abastecimiento y Servicios Agrícolas (CASA) (Corporation for Supply and Agricultural Services), later substituted by the Corporación Única de Servicios Productivos y Alimentarios (CUSPAL) (Single Corporation of Productive and Alimentary Services).
While the economic crisis was deepening and imports plummeted year after year, CORPOVEX emerged as the great centralizer of purchases abroad after receiving more than 100,000 tons of different types of merchandise. In the absence of official data, estimates from private consultants indicate that between 2012, the last year of the oil boom, and 2018, imports fell by 80%, from 50,000 to 10 billion dollars. It has been a landslide with one characteristic: while the foreign purchases of the private sector disappeared, the State increased its weight, reaching a concentration of up to seven out of every ten dollars. The destiny of a large part of those millions was decided in CORPOVEX.
The state company, for example, received wooden and metal doors, sanitary pieces or scaffolding purchased from the Chinese company Catic Beijing, possibly for the works of the state social housing program called Misión Vivienda (Housing Mission), the state’s plan for construction; powdered milk sent by Argentina Sancor Cooperativas Unidas, corn seeds bought from Monsanto Comercial S.A and bovine meat from Nicaraguan Novaterra S.A, among other products and suppliers.
For Maduro, the creation of Corpovex was an urgent need to get rid of the challenged Comisión de Administración de Divisas (CADIVI) (Currency Administration Commission) that led the delivery of dollars for imports since 2003, the year when the currency exchange control began in Venezuela which, 16 years later, seems to have started to disassemble. Only in 2012, 20 billion dollars were diverted from Cadivi for phantom companies, commonly called “briefcase companies” as they didn´t physically exist, as reported by government officials such as Jorge Giordani or Edmée Betancourt. For Maduro, the solution would be CORPOVEX, an entity with the resemblance of Cuban state corporations that have controlled the commerce in the island for decades.
Uniformed control
Seven months after being sworn in as president of the republic, Maduro passed a bill that simultaneously created both CORPOVEX and Centro Nacional de Comercio Exterior (CENCOEX) (National Center for Foreign Trade). “It is essential to properly plan the nation’s imports, in order to align currency exchange and monetary policy with import and export policies, so that the Venezuelan people and economy can be protected on a superior level.” as referred in the document published on November 29, 2013. Results do not resemble in any way what was expressed on paper, however.
If CADIVI was the black box for Hugo Chávez’s administration, the same can be said for CORPOVEX and Maduro’s administration. Giuseppe Yoffreda presided CORPOVEX from March 11th, 2014 until June of last year without having any accountability. Just as Manuel Barroso, former CADIVI president, Yoffreda is also a military man close to Diosdado Cabello, the government’s second in command, and to his brother José David Cabello, director of the revenue agency Servicio Nacional Integrado de Administración Aduanera y Tributaria (SENIAT) (Venezuela’s revenue service). Another similarity between Yoffreda and Barroso, who is currently a military attaché in Brazil, is that upon leaving CORPOVEX, Yoffreda was sent overseas as Venezuelan ambassador to Qatar. But while presiding the corporation, he ran it as he pleased.
CORPOVEX’s first official headquarters was located in the country’s vice presidency because the Venezolana de Exportaciones e Importaciones (VEXIMCA) (Venezuelan corporation for exports and imports) was also located there. It then moved to the 10th floor of the Eurobuilding Corporate Center, a five-star hotel located in east Caracas, it then finally moved to Mata de Coco shopping center in the municipality of Chacao, where the offices of the revenue agency SENIAT, presided by Diosdado Cabellos’s brother for a number of years, are located. Ever since, CORPOVEX just kept on growing, devouring everything in its path, following Maduro’s instructions.
“This has to work as an army: find and locate the needs and guarantee the best markets, the best prices for the country, and guarantee that the products that we need arrive and are distributed”, Maduro instructed Yoffreda back in January 2015 after signing a bill that approved that CORPOVEX take control of state companies like VEXIMCA, Suministros Venezolanos Industriales C.A. (SUVINCA) CVG International or BARIVEN SA, all in charge of industrial purchases for Petróleos De Venezuela (PDVSA) (Petroleum of Venezuela).
Maduro used to say that he did not want to repeat CADIVI’s history of vices. “You are responsible for this, I have trust in your capacity, your command, I have trust in your love for the nation, which I know perfectly” insisted the nation’s leader during an act in the presidential palace.
But Yoffreda’s on boarding, rather than guaranteeing the “best price”, ended up benefiting corporate groups close to the nation’s power, a detail that has not gone unnoticed by Trump’s administration, ever more aware of Maduro’s administration moves.
Family Business
In September 2017, when Washington issued financial sanctions against the Venezuelan regime, the bureau of the Department of Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) issued a first warning against CORPOVEX. “Members of the regime and their allies direct government contracts to their associated companies to import goods and obtain approval from the Venezuelan Corporation of Foreign Trade (CORPOVEX) for foreign-domiciled companies—often shell companies—to participate in the import activity.”
Data gathered by Armando.Info shows examples of the presence of intermediaries such as AMW (HK) International from Hong Kong, or Anis Services from Panama linked to the former French directive of the expropriated Grupo Casino in Venezuela, companies that without much commercial background turned up as providers of detergent, and personal care product such as diapers, toilet paper amongst others, for CORPOVEX.
It’s also relevant to point out POSTAR INTERTRADE LIMITED, a company registered in Barbados and owned by Samark Lopez Bello, who is accused by the US government of being Tarek El Aissami’s front man, who (El Aissami) is currently the Vice President for Economic Issues and Secretary of Industry. Not only did the company do deliveries for the Industrial PDVSA in 2014, but it also sold thousand of boxes filled with food for the nation’s Comité Locales de Abastecimiento y Producción (CLAP) (local committees for supply and distribution) to CORPOVEX back in 2017. The CLAP committee was officialized in March 2016.
The role of CORPOVEX has been key in this business. Giuseppe Yoffreda sealed deals with Group Grand Limited, registered in Hong Kong. This company is the façade for Colombian entrepreneurs Alex Saab Moran and Alvaro Pulido Vargas and has also sealed deals with phantom societies in tax havens, as revealed by Armando.Info.
FINCEN recently issued a new warning deeming operations linked to CLAP as vulnerable to corruption and even money laundering. “Having received the contract without bidding, hired companies receive CORPOVEX’s authorization to import food into Venezuela. Quite frequently, these companies receive payment in advance through CORPOVEX or through the Banco de Desarollo Económico y Social (BANDES) (Economic and Social Development Bank)”, states the document dated May 3rd of this year.
The CLAP operation is not the only massive food purchase in which CORPOVEX has been involved. Giuseppe Yoffreda was a part of the Venezuelan committee that traveled to Brazil in June 2015 to negotiate with the Batista family, who owned JBS, a contract of 2,1 billion dollar contract – as reported by Bloomberg– for the supply of thousands of tons of chicken and meat prior of the legislative elections that the official party eventually lost. Yoffreda went with Cabello brothers and the then Finance Secretary and now current Governor of the State of Aragua, Rodolfo Marco Torres, all of them military men.
“From within the Venezuelan Corporation for Foreign Trade (CORPOVEX) we are reviewing to eliminate the maximum number of intermediaries that are affecting us in Venezuela, therefore optimizing resources and the currency of the Venezuelan people so that we can guarantee to the Venezuelan people the effective fight against the economic war, the optimization of resources for the Venezuelan people, to achieve a secure and efficient supply” stated Yoffreda from one of the facilities of JBS.
That was one of the few public appearances Yoffreda made as head of CORPOVEX until June of last year, when he was removed by Maduro from the position and replaced by Xabier Fernando León Anchistegui, former president of BANDES and former Commerce Secretary, among other positions. Xabier León is close to Tarek El Aissami, Vice President of National Production and Minister of Industry, and to Simon Zerpa, Finance Secretary, and he seems to be replicating the silent strategy. Nevertheless, operations from CORPOVEX are already under suspicion.
