Wednesday 2 July 2014

Nepotism in Venezuela (just a tiny tiny selection)


María Carmen Varela, sister of the minister for Penitentiary Affairs Iris Varela, is now the director of that ministry ("directora de despacho"). I wonder what job she had before this. 
There hasn't been so much nepotism in Venezuela probably since Tadeo Monagas

Ramírez Family

Engineer Rafael Ramírez is the director of the state oil company PDVSA and minister of Energy as well as economy czar now. His wife, Beatriz Sansó Rondón de Ramírez, is active at a legal company working for PDVSA. Hildegard Sansó, Beatriz's mother, is also a legal advisor of PDVSA. Her son, Baldó Sansó, is another advisor to PDVSA, one that Rory Carroll mentions in his book about Chávez. Diego Salazar Carreño, a contractor for PDVSA, is Rafael's godchild. Salazar comes from a family of ex guerrilleros. Eglis Ramírez, Rafael's uncle, was president of PDVSA Agrícola until 2012, when he was sacked. PDVSA Agrícola had received millions upon millions and had nothing to show for it.

Ameliach Family

Francisco Ameliach, the former coup monger and military who is now governor of Carabobo, has appointed his brother Saúl as "Sole Authority of Carabobo" (yes, that's the title). Saúl is also director of state company PEQUIVEN (oil).

Rangel Family

José Vicente Rangel, former vice-president and minister, now working as a "journalist", has a son, José Vicente Junior, working as vice-minister for Interior.

Chávez Family

The son-in-law of the late caudillo Chávez, Jorge Arreaza, is vice-president. Chávez's oldest brother is still governor of Barinas whereas Argenis Chávez, another brother, is supervisor of Venezuela's judges. Asdrubal Chávez, another one of the brothers, is vice-president of PDVSA.


Rodríguez Gómez Family

Jorge Jesús Rodríguez Gómez, mayor of Libertador, is the brother of Delcy Eloína Rodríguez, current minister of Communication.

Maduro and Flores Families

Now let's go with Maduro himself. Nicolás Maduro's 23-year old son is the Coordinator of the School of Cinema. He has no studies and no experience. He is already "head of body of inspectors". Nicolás Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, is also deputy at the National Assembly. Now, one of her nephews, Carlos Erick Malpica Flores, is the treasurer of the Nation. Another one, Walter Gavidia Flores, is titular judge even though he is just 27 and the vast majority of judges in Venezuela work with a temporary contract. Hermes Flores, Numidia Flores, Cristian Flores, Demetrio Flores and Vladimir Flores were new employees of the National Assembly.

Cabello Family

Diosdado Cabello, former military coup monger, is the President of the National Assembly and one of the most poweful men in Venezuela. His wife, Marleny Contrera, was appointed to work at the SENIAT (tax agency). Marlene's brother  Ernesto was appointed as Manager Director at SENIAT. José David Cabello is not only a minister but also head of the SENIAT and his wife is "president of the SENIAT Foundation".

To be continued...

1 comment:

  1. I´m sure you will find hundreds of such links if you extend the search to school chums and acquaintances. Venezuelan society impressed me as one in which nepotism or amiguismo was very widespread. In my job at a large company I saw the Venezuelan managers abuse it. I also found there were links between PDVSA managers and amongst the managers of the various multinationals which had in many cases gone to the same schools or had been job companions.

    However, this Venezuelan tendency towards nepotism has been taken to an extreme by the Chavez and Maduro regime. I think it´s also important to mention the fact that many of these individuals are incredibly incompetent, and tend to surround themselves with the same type of person. This is one reason why the chavistas in power have had such lousy results.

    ReplyDelete

1) Try to be constructive and creative. The main goal of this blog is not to bash but to propose ideas and, when needed, to denounce
2) Do not use offensive language
3) Bear in mind that your comments can be edited or deleted at the blogger's sole discretion
4) If your comment would link back to a site promoting hatred of ethnic groups, nations, religions or the like, don't bother commenting here.
5) Read point 4 again