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Venezuela: Maduro’s sanctioned nephew, the key to resuming dialogue between the government and the opposition?

The former treasurer and former vice president of PDVSA, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, 49, the favorite nephew of the first lady Cilia Flores and Nicolás Maduro for being their economic and financial operator, It is part of the conditions that the Chavista regime has set to resume negotiations with the interim government of Juan Guaidó, suspended in Mexico since last October.

And it is that in the last meetings held between representatives of the government of Joe Biden and the Chavista regime in Caracas to partially ease the oil sanctions on the South American country that depend on the restart of the dialogue in Mexico, the name of the nephew of the presidential couple has emerged as a currency of exchange to return to dialogue.

Maduro has conditioned the release of his nephew to resume dialogue with the opposition in Mexico, whose “formal talks” began in Caracas last week.

“After the visit of American officials to Venezuela, it was said that this was the first name that Nicolás Maduro put on the table in the negotiations and in second place that of his figurehead Alex Saab (prisoner in the US), in addition to the oil concessions” , reported to Clarion the researcher Roberto Deniz of the Armando.Info portal.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó speaks at a press conference in Caracas (Venezuela). Photo EFE

The sanctions

Indeed, according to the Reuters agency, the US Treasury Department. is preparing to renew Chevron’s license in the coming days to operate in Venezuela, thus taking the first steps to oxygenate and encourage the Maduro regime to do the same to the opposition counterpart.

Although they are uncomfortable concessions for Guaidó’s opponent, whose coalition “He has categorically denied” who has requested the lifting of personal sanctions against the nephew to sit at the negotiating table.

“Our goal is free and fair presidential elections, and the restitution of the rights of all Venezuelans, including the release of all political prisoners,” said the opposition leader.

Omar Barboza, executive secretary of the opposition Guaidó Unitary Platform, told the local press that “they are waiting for the response from the Maduro regime, which will allow the conditions for free elections to be created, and affirmed that it will be necessary to make concessions on both sides. There are good expectations to re-establish talks“, accurate.

Rafael Ramírez, the former president of the state-owned PDVSA and former Minister of Oil (2002-2013) and until 2016 was the representative of Venezuela before the UN Security Council, has echoed the presidential nephew whom he calls Erik Malpica to dry and qualifies as “the most important man for the madurista government”.

What impresses the once powerful former Chavista oil czar is that of the entire “madurista” staff and a long list of 140 sanctioned leaders, “Nicolás Maduro, only comes to mind, save Erick Malpica!”

The importance of the nephew

Why is Erick Malpica so important to Maduro? Ramírez wonders on his website. “It is not just that he is another nephew of Cilia Flores, which is not at all strange, since in this government, most of the direct relatives of the presidential couple perform key functions or have direct influence on it; the really important is the role it has played in the assault on power by the madurismo, which has made him the most important economic operator for Maduro and his inner circle. This has been the case since his time in the Foreign Ministry, where he was the administrator of the then Chancellor Maduro”.

Carlos Erik Malpica Flores

Carlos Erik Malpica Flores

Malpica Flores, 49, is the most powerful financial hierarch of the Venezuelan presidential couple and of the Chavista government, which acts in the shadows. He is quiet, reserved, does not give interviews or have social media accounts. but she likes luxury, giving parties with french rosé champagnetravel in private planes, stay in five-star hotels and exclusive restaurants in the Caribbean islands.

Malpica moves like a fish in the Caribbean Sea. One of his favorites is the small island of Saint Barth, in the eastern Caribbean, where he organized a party for Christmas 2014 to celebrate his appointment as vice president of PDVSA with pink champagne.

Since his uncle Nicolás came to power in 2013, he has held the most important positions such as the National Treasury Office, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the state-owned PDVSA, the BANDES and FONDES banking entities, the secretariat of the Presidency, the Foreign Ministry, the National Assembly and various foundations.

To the all powerful presidential nephew he is considered as a financial octopus that has managed and continues to control the coffers of the nation’s budget, profiting from the public treasury while the country suffers the worst economic and social crisis in its history, which has caused the exodus of more than 6 million Venezuelans abroad.

Before being sanctioned for corruption created 16 fictitious companies in Panama, as reported in the Panama Papers. The isthmus newspaper La Estrella has published reports about the acquisition of properties in Panama for her aunt, the first lady. The same happens in the Dominican Republic.

There is a close relationship between the socialist government of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Chavista regime due to the links that exist in their tax haven. A month ago Maduro canceled his oil debt of 70 million dollars. Venezuela has financed the island’s airport and other works, so that the first lady can “study English,” according to the president.

the presidential nephew was sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury (OFAC) on July 26, 2017 for his alleged responsibility in the corruption of the Chavista regime. And he is still blacklisted.

On March 30, 2018, he was also sanctioned by the government of Panama, as well as companies related to his close relatives, for being considered high risk for money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, according to the newspaper The National.

Canada and Europe have also sanctioned Malpica Flores, the hidden face of the financial power behind the throne of Miraflores, who now has spread its tentacles towards the collection of municipal taxes from companies that operate in the country, such as the case of the garbage collector “Fospuca”, whose owner José Sión Elarba airs to the four winds that he is the “personal friend” of the first lady’s nephew .

The OAS included it in the sanctions of the member countries of the TIAR (Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance). However, Maduro has favored his nephew and his contractor friends with contracts for the Carnet de la Patria, the “CLAP” food bags (Local Food and Production Committee) and the construction of works and houses, among others, undermined by corruption, according to the portal Armando.Info.

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