Weeks ago, Jhonnathan Marín, former Chavista mayor of the Guanta Municipality, located in the north of Anzoátegui State, pleaded guilty to receiving 3.8 million dollars in bribes from one of his partners with the objective that the former official move his influence and divert oil contracts in favor of this person, who has not been identified so far.
By Correspondent lapatilla.com
However, there are those who affirm that the amount of the bribes admitted by the man who was in charge of this port city between 2008 and 2017 is just a small percentage of the fortune he managed to amass, and one must add the embezzlement to Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) and other projects for which he received money, but which were never completed.
Furthermore, Omar González, a member of the national leadership of the “Vente Venezuela” party, assured that Marín stole a lot more money than he admitted in a court in Miami, United States.
“Those 3.8 million dollars that he acknowledges having received as bribes is a grain of sand on a beach in the Caribbean Sea, compared to the volume of corruption in which he is involved,” Mr. González said in a press release.
The deputy to the 2015 National Assembly pointed out that the former mayor “just fled” in 2017, after nine years in office and after participating in “giant contracts” with PDVSA, in plots involving medical supplies together with Carlos Rotondaro, who was president of the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security (IVSS), and also with consortiums and figureheads.
Omar González, a member of the national leadership of the “Vente Venezuela” party, claimed that Marín stole more money than he admitted in a court in Miami, United States.
“He has search warrants and indictments everywhere, so he chose to admit guilt for having ‘pocketed’ almost four million dollars, when this is a trifle for the volume of everything they say he stole,” Mr. Gonzalez reiterated.
The opposition leader revealed that the former militant of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), had clashes with Tarek William Saab, current attorney general and who was governor of Anzoátegui between 2004 and 2012. “He wanted to be not only mayor, but he wanted to undermine Saab’s tenure, because he aspired to be governor.”
In his opinion, all those internal fights within Chavismo were also reflected. “Before it was said that they were part of the political fights, and now it is shown that corruption has reached the marrow of socialism and Chavismo in Venezuela,” he asserted.
He Was Paid in Toto and Left Half
According to the IVSS website, construction of this center began in August 2012.
In August 2012, the then president of the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security, Carlos Rontondaro, together with Mayor Jhonnathan Marín, began the construction of the IVSS Type III Hospital in the town of Guanta.
It was a work of 29,000 square meters that, according to what they stated: “… will replace the old “Hospital César Rodríguez de Guaraguao” and will maximize the efficiency of the Public Healthcare System.” Ten years after those declarations, the infrastructure is a half-finished skeleton.
“From Guanta by birth” was the slogan used to sow expectations in the population, which does not have a formal and modern maternity ward. They promised that they would have burn therapy and hemodynamic units in their district.
According to the IVSS website, this center began to be built in August 2012. Four years later – still without finishing the project – Marín specified that until that date the government had invested 2,240 million bolívares in the works and assured that they had the necessary materials to complete them and activate the hospital in 2017.
The political leader José Santoyo, recalled that the mayor’s office at that time ceded the land of the José Tadeo Arreaza Calatrava park for the construction, without the consent of the municipal chamber. “A decree that made this space a protected place was violated because it had been declared a municipal park and the main environmental lung of Guanta, a town that receives a great deal of pollution from the Vencemos (Venezolana de Cementos) company,” Mr. Santoyo said.
And although the healthcare center is the main reference of what the former Chavista official promised and did not fulfill, there are other projects for which he also received substantial funds, but which were never built.
“For the remodeling of La Sirena park, the Municipality paid an amount that exceeded one and a half million bolívares (around 163 thousand dollars) but this was never carried out,” Santoyo said.
Marín also collected the full funds for the construction of a multipurpose field, which would be located in the vicinity of the “Adriana Carmona” indoor gym, but only the slab was laid down and the structure was never erected.
The lawyer added that the monies for the construction of water storage tanks for the benefit of various communities was also raised, with amounts exceeding 870 thousand dollars. However, the only one that was started -and never completed- was the one in the Volcadero sector.
“This tank had to be connected to the desalination plant located in “Costa Mar” bay, another project which was also left incomplete, and from this drinking water would be distributed to homes. In the same way, the repair of the main tank located in “El Chaure” was only promised.”
“The last thing that is recorded is the conditioning of primary healthcare spaces in the different sectors of the town, but this never materialized. Adding up all the amounts, we are talking about several million dollars.”
However, the Social Production Company (EPS) “Cacique Toronoima” cannot be left out, which, according to the lawyer, was established on the land expropriated from the Emfries company, with the excuse that apartments would be built in that space for the middle class.
“Later that same space was the center of operations for their corrupt activities. The equipment that would be part of the expansion of the Puerto La Cruz Refinery was deposited right there.”
Persecuted by Chavismo
Elvis Amoroso, announced his political disqualification for 15 years
Due to the large network of corruption that he designed and ran, Jhonnathan Marín was forced to resign as Mayor of Guanta in 2017 and flee the country. Later, in 2020, the Comptroller of the Republic, Elvis Amoroso, announced his political disqualification for 15 years.
At the time of giving the information, the official said that Marin was only made responsible for administrative irregularities in fiscal periods 2013, 2014, and the first semester of 2015 and 2017.
He also specified that between 2013 and 2017 a budget of 388 million 544 thousand 836 bolívares (equivalent to about 38 million 854 thousand 483 dollars) was approved, but at that time he did not present the supporting documentation of the operations carried out and how this was spent.
Amoroso had also indicated that Jhonnathan Marín discounted the amounts of social security, retirement fund and housing savings of the mayor’s office workers during the first half of 2015 and 2017, which created a debt for the institution.
It is worth noting that Marín, who became part the political movement in 2002 and who came to work as a driver for the current mayor of the Sotillo municipality, Nelson Moreno, has an arrest warrant against him for improper fraudulent embezzlement and criminal association among other things, that is why he has not been able to set foot on Venezuelan territory since he fled, and apparently he is trying to clear his name abroad little by little.