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Miami Herald
04-08-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Feds say Smartmatic bribed Venezuela's top election official with luxury home
Federal prosecutors in South Florida allege that Venezuelan-American tech executive Roger Piñate — co-founder of the voting technology company Smartmatic — secretly bribed Venezuela's longtime elections chief, Tibisay Lucena Ramírez, by transferring control of a luxury residence in Caracas to her in exchange for political favors. The alleged bribe, according to prosecutors, was intended to help Smartmatic secure Lucena's help in a commercial dispute with the Venezuela government, following the company's August 2017 accusation that the Nicolás Maduro regime committed fraud in the National Constituent Assembly election—a claim that led Smartmatic to cease operations in the country. The bribe allegation, detailed in new court filing, is expected to be used by Miami federal prosecutors as evidence against Piñate, who is charged with multiple counts of money laundering and bribery related to contracts in the Philippines. The U.S. government plans to present photographs, witness testimony, and encrypted text messages to demonstrate that Piñate, 49, orchestrated the transfer of an upper-middle-class home with a pool to Lucena Ramírez between April and July 2019. Prosecutors claim the house was offered as a bribe to secure favorable treatment from Lucena, who, as president of Venezuela's National Electoral Council wielded broad authority over the country's controversial voting system and its private vendors. Reacting to the allegations, Smartmatic said the government's filing is 'filled with misrepresentations.' 'As an example, the government's citation of an alleged bribe in Venezuela in 2019 is untethered from reality. Smartmatic ceased all operations in Venezuela in August 2017 after blowing the whistle on the government and has never sought to secure business there again,' the company told the Herald in an email. 'We have always operated lawfully, ethically, and transparently. We stand by our two-decade track record of integrity.' According to the filing, the residence at the center of the alleged scheme was controlled by Piñate through a foreign shell company. Prosecutors say he worked with others — including 'Individual 1,' an unnamed co-conspirator mentioned in a broader indictment — to obscure the property's origin and prevent the transaction from being traced back to him or to Smartmatic. Text messages among the group, according to prosecutors, show that they plotted to transfer the home's title through a third party to conceal the transaction's true purpose: a bribe. Ultimately, Lucena assumed control of the property, which prosecutors say was compensation for her support in resolving a commercial dispute between Smartmatic and the Venezuelan government. The filings cite Rule 404(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, which permits the introduction of evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts not charged in the indictment if they help prove motive, intent, or a pattern of behavior. The Justice Department argues that the alleged Caracas bribe sheds light on Piñate's methods — and supports the broader claim that he systematically used illicit payments to secure or maintain contracts with election officials in various countries. The alleged bribe to Lucena occurred during a stormy period in Smartmatic's dealings with Venezuela. In 2017, a public rift erupted between the company and the electoral council over the results of the Constituent Assembly elections. Smartmatic accused the Maduro regime of manipulating turnout figures, inflating them by at least one million votes, and announced it would cease operations in the country. From 2004 to 2017, Smartmatic had been one of the Venezuelan government's most significant technology partners, supplying voting machines, election software and logistical support under contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. Piñate, as Chief Operating Officer and later President, played a key role in managing the company's relationship with the electoral council leadership. Following the 2017 fallout, Smartmatic stopped receiving payments under its contracts with Venezuela. Prosecutors allege that Piñate sought to repair the relationship and believed Lucena — then still council president — was essential to achieving that goal. Lucena, who died in April 2023, led the electoral council from roughly 2006 through mid-2020 and remained a central figure in Venezuela's electoral infrastructure during the presidencies of Hugo Chávez and much of Nicolás Maduro's tenure. While praised by the regime as a technocrat, she was widely criticized by opposition leaders and international observers for overseeing an electoral system plagued by irregularities and manipulation. The revelations about Lucena come as Piñate faces criminal charges related to a $1 million bribery scheme in the Philippines. In August 2024, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida indicted Piñate and Jorge Miguel Vásquez, 62, of Davie, Florida, for conspiring to bribe Juan Andrés Donato Bautista, the former chairman of the Philippine Commission on Elections. Prosecutors allege that Piñate and his co-defendant inflated the prices of voting machines sold to the Philippines and diverted the excess funds into secret accounts used to pay off Bautista. These illicit transactions were disguised through fake contracts, loan agreements, and coded language. the government says. The funds were laundered through accounts in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., including financial institutions in South Florida. Piñate and Bautista are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international money laundering. If convicted, each faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each count. The cases have brought renewed scrutiny to Smartmatic, a company long at the center of debates over electronic voting systems, especially in Latin America. Though it has consistently defended the integrity of its technology and denied involvement in government manipulation, the firm now finds itself implicated in allegations that its senior leadership engaged in bribery as a routine business practice. Smartmatic was founded in 2000 by Piñate, Antonio Mugica, and Alfredo José Anzola, with the goal of providing secure digital voting systems. The company gained international prominence after the Chávez government awarded it contracts to modernize Venezuela's election infrastructure in 2004. The company's systems were used in numerous elections during the Chávez and Maduro eras, playing a central role in digitizing the country's voting process.
27-06-2025
- Politics
Colombian court halts investigation into presidential campaign funds
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's Constitutional Court on Thursday stopped an electoral body from investigating accusations of illicit campaign financing and unreported spending by President Gustavo Petro, delivering a legal victory to the beleaguered left-wing leader. The court ruled that only Congress can investigate alleged irregularities in the financing of Petro's 2022 campaign. Petro has denied any financial impropriety. The ruling scraps a probe by the National Electoral Council into whether Petro's campaign exceeded fundraising limits by about $1.2 million and whether it accepted funds from labor organizations, which is banned by Colombian law. The council is an administrative body that supervises the electoral process and oversees campaign financing. It can also impose administrative sanctions, such as hefty fines against campaign staffers. The court ordered the electoral council to refer its investigation to Colombia's House of Representatives. It's unclear whether lawmakers will advance the case. Although Petro often clashes with Congress, lawmakers have never removed a Colombian president from office, even in the face of intense public pressure when investigators in 1996 demonstrated then-President Ernesto Samper's ties to drug cartel financing. Petro fiercely criticized the electoral council as politically motivated, opening another front in his battles against the country's courts, which have overturned some of his key decrees and appointments. The officials on the electoral council planned to examine campaign contributions by unions of public school teachers and oil workers, among others, citing a dozen financial transactions Petro's campaign had allegedly failed to report. On Thursday, Petro applauded the court's decision. 'Well done to the Constitutional Court,' he posted on social media platform X. This was just the latest in a swirl of scandals over the financing of Petro's campaign. The Attorney General's office has also been investigating Petro's son Nicolás over allegations that the campaign took funds from criminal sources, including a notorious former drug trafficker.
Miami Herald
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Venezuela's election fiasco may move Maduro to shed any pretense of democracy
Following Venezuela's sham legislative elections May 25, which were boycotted by the main opposition coalition and marked by an embarrassingly low voter turnout, dictator Nicolás Maduro is likely done pretending to hold free elections. The vote was such a fiasco for the regime's hopes of recovering international recognition that Maduro now says he plans to change the Constitution and hold future elections under a 'communal' electoral system. Needless to say, this would secure for him — much like in Cuba — guaranteed victories. In an exclusive Zoom interview on May 26, opposition leader María Corina Machado told me the legislative elections were a 'monumental defeat' for Maduro because an overwhelming majority of Venezuelans heeded the opposition's call to boycott the vote. 'It was the lowest voter participation in Venezuela's history,' Machado told me. 'No one went out to vote.' While the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council claimed a 43% turnout, Machado told me it was just 12%. Her estimate may be closer to reality. The Meganálisis polling firm put turnout at 14%. The Economist magazine reported, 'Turnout appeared pitiful. Polling stations were deserted.' Machado, who remains in hiding to avoid her arrest, added that the opposition collected about 10,000 photos and videos taken that day at voting places, showing that they were virtually empty. The government also banned top opposition leaders from running and barred international observers, including from the European Union and the Organization of American States, from monitoring the elections. As expected, Maduro claimed a huge victory. 'Today, we have shown the strength of Chavismo,' he said on election night, referring to the party he inherited from former strongman Hugo Chávez. According to the government-controlled National Electoral Council, Maduro's party won 83% of the parliamentary vote, giving it and its allies 253 seats in the 285-seat congress. The government also claimed to have won 23 of 24 governorships, an increase of three over its previous total. In last year's July 28 presidential election, in which Machado and other leading opposition figures were barred, Maduro proclaimed himself re-elected even though opposition tallies showed that Machado's hand-picked candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, had won by a landslide with more than 67% of the vote. The government never released voting records to substantiate Maduro's alleged victory. When I asked Machado why Maduro even held last week's legislative elections, given that hardly anyone takes Venezuela's voting process seriously, she said the government didn't expect such a low turnout. 'They thought that they could force public employees to go to the polls, like in the past, and create an illusion that 30% or 40% of the population had participated,' Machado said. 'They hoped that this would help normalize things, but it backfired.' Until now, Maduro pretended to allow a semblance of democratic normalcy to win some international recognition, especially from Brazil and other Latin American countries. But he is now suggesting that he will change Venezuela's Constitution to overhaul the voting system. Venezuela needs 'a new electoral system' and 'the re-engineering of everything, like where people vote and how people vote,' Maduro said on the afternoon of May 25, when it was already clear that few Venezuelans had heeded the government's call to vote. Maduro called for creating 'an electoral system of communal circuits for permanent consultation.' He did not elaborate, but he seemed to be proposing a system of government-controlled plebiscites. I wouldn't be surprised if Maduro goes ahead with this plan. Even the democratically elected leftist governments of Brazil, Colombia and Chile don't take his elections seriously. And the fact that he can't even get Venezuela's public employees to the polls makes him look weak at home. In addition, public discontent is likely to rise in the coming months. The economy, which had been recovering somewhat since its worst crisis in 2019, is once again going downhill. Annual inflation already exceeds 100%, and the official minimum wage, without bonuses, is just $1.50 a month. Economic growth is expected to contract between 1.5% and 4% this year, due to low world oil prices and the U.S. decision to suspend Chevron's license to export oil from Venezuela. To make things worse for Maduro, Russia and China are not as willing as in the past to give Maduro an economic lifeline, after seeing their loans wasted by mismanagement and corruption. And Trump's vows to clamp down on illegal immigration and deport more than 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants may shut down an escape route for many desperate Venezuelans. In short, Maduro's legislative elections may have been a pyrrhic victory for him. He will now have more legislators in congress and more governors, but he is even more isolated from the rest of the world and his own people. Don't miss the 'Oppenheimer Presenta' TV show on Sundays at 9 pm E.T. on CNN en Español. Blog:
Chicago Tribune
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Many Venezuelan voters, frustrated and disillusioned, skip election
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelans still reeling from the outcome of last year's presidential election did not respond Sunday to government calls to get out and vote for lawmakers, governors and other officials. That left voting centers practically empty at times and put officials on the defensive. The election, which the political opposition urged people to boycott, was the first to allow broad voter participation since the presidential contest that President Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won last year despite credible evidence to the contrary. It took place two days after the government detained dozens of people, including a prominent opposition leader, and linked them to an alleged plot to hinder the vote. Members of the military throughout the day outnumbered voters at many polling centers in the capital, Caracas, where no lines formed outside in stark contrast with the enthusiasm of the July presidential election, when some people lined up for hours. But senior government officials insisted polling centers saw such overwhelming participation on Sunday that they had to remain open past the scheduled 12 hours of operation. Electoral authorities said 42.66% of registered voters cast ballots across the country. Some 21.4 million people were registered, meaning the National Electoral Council claimed that about 9.12 million voters participated. Voter participation, in the eyes of the opposition, legitimizes Maduro's claim to power and his government's repressive apparatus, which after the July presidential election detained more than 2,000 people including protesters, poll workers, political activists and minors, to quash dissent. 'I'm not going to vote,' truck driver Carlos León, 41, said standing near a desolate polling station in downtown Caracas. 'I don't believe in the (electoral authority). I don't think they'll respect the vote. Nobody forgets what happened in the presidential elections. It's sad, but it's true.' A nationwide poll conducted between April 29 and May 4 by the Venezuela-based research firm Delphos showed that only 15.9% of voters expressed a high probability of voting Sunday. Of those, 74.2% said they would vote for the candidates of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela and its allies, while 13.8% said they would vote for contenders associated with two opposition leaders who are not boycotting the elections. 'Today, we witnessed an event that attempted to disguise itself as an election, but failed to deceive the country or the world,' Edmundo González, who is recognized by the United States and several other countries as the winner of the July presidential election, posted on X. 'What the world saw today was an act of civic courage. A silent but powerful declaration that the desire for change, dignity, and a future remains intact,' he added. Opposition leaders chose González, a retired diplomat, as the faction's presidential candidate because the government banned primary winner Maria Corina Machado from running for office. González has been in exile since September to avoid arrest and, for the same reason, Machado has not been seen in public since January. Machado's close ally, Juan Pablo Guanipa, was among 70 people detained Friday for alleged anti-government activities. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello linked Guanipa to an alleged 'terrorist group' plotting to disturb Sunday's vote. Guanipa's brother, Tomás, rejected the accusation and said the arrest was punishment for 'thinking differently' from the government. The ruling party-loyal National Electoral Council oversaw Sunday's election for state legislators, 285 members of the unicameral National Assembly and all 24 governors, including the newly created governorship purportedly established to administer Essequibo, a region long under dispute between Venezuela and neighboring Guyana. Among the members of the opposition who were on Sunday's ballot were twice-failed presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, who won a seat in the National Assembly, and former lawmaker Juan Requesens, who lost his bid for governor. Requesens spent years in prison after authorities accused him of participating in a failed drone attack against Maduro. The electoral body reported that the ruling party won 23 of the 24 gubernatorial races. Maduro's party also kept control of the National Assembly. Maduro after voting said the electronic polling process is 'very fast and very easy,' seemingly justifying the lack of lines at polling centers. His ruling-party ally, Gov. Freddy Bernal, explained the apparent low turnout similarly. 'We won't see long lines because the process is very fast,' Bernal, who was reelected governor of the state of Táchira, told state television. Maduro also criticized opposition factions who asked people not to vote. 'What did they win? They lost everything,' Maduro said three times regarding previous opposition boycotts. 'They — the ones running that campaign — are nothing, and Venezuela continues its course.' The ruling party controls 19 governorships and more than 90% of the National Assembly seats. But in Maduro's Venezuela, regional elected officials, regardless of party affiliation, have limited impact on people's lives because his highly centralized government controls practically everything from Caracas. The government also represses the opposition by, for instance, disqualifying a candidate after the election or appointing a ruling-party loyalist to oversee the elected offices held by opponents, rendering them powerless. Further, after the opposition won control of the National Assembly in 2015, Maduro created an election for members of a Constituent Assembly in 2017. That body, controlled by the ruling party, decreed itself superior to all other branches of government until it ceased to exist in 2020. On Sunday, state television showed daylight footage of voters gathered at some polling centers outside Caracas, including from Indigenous communities where people traveled by boat and defied heavy rains to vote. In a working-class neighborhood in the capital, the National Guard placed three armored personnel carriers, but by midday, the nearest voting center had no visible activity and soldiers were looking at their cellphones while they sheltered from the sun. Meanwhile, voters at a polling place in downtown Caracas said they cast ballots out of fear of losing their government jobs or food and other state-controlled benefits. And in an opposition stronghold, some ignored the boycott calls believing that voting is their civic duty, while others saw the election as a chance to keep their local government under opposition control. 'I'm defending my municipality,' said Edith, the owner of a bankrupt family business who declined to give her last name out of fear of government reprisals. 'I'm still angry with what happened in July, but I have to defend it.'
Euronews
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Sweeping victory for ruling party announced in Venezuela's elections
Venezuela's ruling party retained its significant majority in Sunday's regional and parliamentary elections, which were largely boycotted by opposition groups protesting the government of President Nicolás Maduro and his contested re-election last year. Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela won nearly 83% of the vote, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), which is widely seen as loyal to the ruling party. They also reportedly secured 23 of 24 state governorships. The political opposition, led by figurehead María Corina Machado, had urged voters to boycott the election, calling it a "farce" designed to legitimise authoritarian rule. Maduro dismissed the boycott. "What did they win? They lost everything," he said regarding previous opposition boycotts. "They - the ones running that campaign - are nothing, and Venezuela continues its course." Electoral authorities reported a turnout of 42.66% among the country's 21.4 million registered voters, which would indicate approximately 9.12 million ballots cast. Just two days before the vote, the government arrested at least 70 people it claimed were involved in a plot to obstruct the election. Among those arrested was former National Assembly Vice President and opposition leader, Juan Pablo Guanipa. This was the first nationwide vote with broad voter eligibility since Maduro declared victory in the 2024 presidential election, a result widely questioned by international observers and many Venezuelans. A nationwide poll conducted between 29 April-4 May by the Venezuela-based firm Delphos found that only 15.9% of voters had expressed a strong likelihood of participating in the regional elections. Among those who said they would vote, 74.2% supported Maduro's party and its allies, while just 13.8% favoured two opposition candidates who chose not to boycott. More than 2,000 people, including protesters, election workers, and political activists, have been arrested since Maduro's disputed re-election, according to human rights groups.
