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WORLD NEWS Thursday 29 december 2016

Venezuela military trafficking food as country goes hungry

HANNAH DREIER to requests for comment,
JOSHUA GOODMAN but in the past dismissed
Associated Press charges of corruption as
PUERTO CABELLO, Venezu- personal attacks from the
ela (AP) — When hunger opposition.
drew tens of thousands of The socialist administration
Venezuelans to the streets says it takes graft seriously.
last summer in protest, “The state has an obliga-
President Nicolas Maduro tion to root out corruption
turned to the military to in all levels of public ad-
manage the country’s di- ministration,” the defense
minished food supply, put- minister, Gen. Vladimir Pa-
ting generals in charge of drino Lopez, said this fall.
everything from butter to And yet dirty dealing per-
rice. sists from the port to the
But instead of fighting hun- markets, according to
ger, the military is making dozens of people working
money from it, an Associ- in Puerto Cabello, which
ated Press investigation handles the majority of im-
shows. That’s what grocer ported food.
Jose Campos found when Officials sometimes keep
he ran out of pantry staples ships waiting at sea until
this year. In the middle of they are paid off, accord-
the night, he would travel In this Dec. 19, 2016 photo, a National Guard soldier watches over cargo trucks leaving the port ing to a stevedore who
to an illegal market run in Puerto Cabello in Venezuela, the port city that handles the majority of the country’s food im- spoke anonymously be-
by the military to buy corn ports. Associated Press cause he feared losing his
flour — at 100 times the job.
government-set price. “Lately, food is a better cerns of graft, the three hand-delivered letter. In After the cargo is unload-
“The military would be business than drugs,” said largest global food traders, the past, he has said he will ed, customs officials take
watching over whole bags retired Gen. Cliver Alcala, all based in the U.S., have not be lured into fights with their cut, refusing to even
of money,” Campos said. who helped oversee bor- stopped selling directly to an unpatriotic opposition. start the process of na-
“They always had what I der security. the Venezuelan govern- Some contracts go to com- tionalizing goods without
needed.” The late President Hugo ment. panies that have no expe- a payment, four customs
With much of the oil country Chavez created a Food One South American busi- rience dealing in food or workers said, .
on the verge of starvation Ministry in 2004. His socialist nessman says he paid mil- seem to exist only on pa- “It’s an unbroken chain
and malnourished children government nationalized lions in kickbacks to Ven- per. Financial documents of bribery from when your
dying in pediatric wards, and then neglected farms ezuelan officials as the obtained by AP show that ship comes in until the food
food trafficking has be- and factories, and domes- hunger crisis worsened, in- Marco Torres did business is driven out in trucks,” said
come big business in Vene- tic production dried up. cluding $8 million to people with Panama-registered Luis Pena, a director at the
zuela. And the military is at When the price of oil col- who work for the food min- Atlas Systems International, Caracas-based importer
the heart of the graft, ac- lapsed in 2014, the govern- ister, Gen. Rodolfo Marco which has all the hallmarks Premier Foods.
cording to documents and ment no longer could af- Torres. The businessman in- of a shell company. An- If importers try to get
interviews with more than ford to import all the coun- sisted on speaking anony- other government food through the process with-
60 officials, company own- try needed. mously because he did not supplier, J.A. Comercio de out greasing the wheels,
ers and workers, including Hungry Venezuelans be- want to acknowledge par- Generos Alimenticios, lists food sits and spoils, Pena
five former generals. gan rioting, and so Maduro ticipating in corruption. on its website a nonexistent said. Rotting food is a
As a result, food is not handed the generals com- He explained that vendors address in an industrial city problem even as 90 per-
reaching those who most plete power over food. The like him can afford to pay near Sao Paulo, Brazil. cent of Venezuelans say
need it. government now imports off officials because they The two companies trans- they can’t afford enough
The U.S. government has nearly all the country’s build large profit margins ferred more than $5.5 mil- to eat. The demands for
taken notice. Prosecutors food, and corruption drives into what they bill the state. lion in 2012 and 2013 to bribes delay shipments,
have opened investiga- prices sky-high, said Werner A single $52 million con- a Geneva account con- and state officials some-
tions against senior Ven- Gutierrez, agronomy pro- tract of his to import yel- trolled by the brothers-in- times neglect to distribute
ezuelan officials for laun- fessor at the University of low corn last year, seen by law of the then-food minis- what they import.
dering riches from food Zulia. AP, included a potential ter, Gen. Carlos Osorio, ac- Puerto Cabello crane op-
contracts through the U.S. “If Venezuela paid market overpayment of more than cording to bank and inter- erator Daniel Arteaga
financial system, accord- prices, we’d be able to $20 million, compared with nal company documents watched last winter as
ing to several people with double our imports,” Guti- market prices at the time. seen by AP. state workers buried hun-
direct knowledge of the errez said. “Instead, people Marco Torres did not re- Osorio, recently appointed dreds of containers of
probes. No charges have are starving.” spond to requests for com- to oversee transparency in spoiled chicken, meat and
been brought. In large part due to con- ment by phone, email and the military, did not respond beans.q