![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/23042017-1.png\")
The \r\nwelfare plan arose just over a year ago. It began with the disorganized \r\ndistribution of food bags in popular areas, and has been systematized to the box \r\nformat. In theory, the censored families receive the box biweekly. It is the \r\nGovernment's response to an economic crisis extended for over three years, with \r\npersistent and widespread shortages and triple-digit inflation. \"All the power \r\nfor the CLAPs,\" Nicol\u00e1s Maduro insistently goes on about. The measure is also \r\nintended to avoid lines of people at the doors of supermarkets in search of \r\nprice-controlled products and their subsequent resale at informal markets, a \r\npractice known as \"bachaqueo.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Tracking \r\nthe boxes for the CLAPs is a confusing journey that leads to an obscure \r\nstructure, but now it is evident that Alex Saab has at least one slice of this \r\ncake. A hundred documents obtained for this investigation prove that he imported \r\nfood through a company called Group Grand Limited. The intermediary was the \r\nState Government of T\u00e1chira, under the lead of Jos\u00e9 Gregorio Vielma Mora, a \r\nmilitary who participated in the coup of February 4,1992, -commanded by Hugo \r\nCh\u00e1vez- who had held several public positions during \r\nchavismo<\/I>.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
He \r\nis the same Alex Saab who in 2015 was questioned \u2014along with his partner, \u00c1lvaro \r\nPulido Vargas\u2014 for a corruption scandal with his company Global Construction \r\nFund. The Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office detected irregularities two years ago, \r\nand pointed out the simulation and over-invoicing of exports from Quito and \r\nGuayaquil to Caracas to take advantage of the Venezuelan exchange control \r\nthrough the Unified System for Regional Compensation (Sucre), created by the \r\ngovernments of the late Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and his Ecuadorian counterpart, Rafael \r\nCorrea.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
According \r\nto the inquiries of Ecuador's prosecutors, these operations were linked to the \r\ncontracts entered into by and between the Global Construction Fund and \r\nVenezuelan agencies years ago to build prefabricated houses under the government \r\nHousing Mission program. It is not, in any case, the only investigation on the \r\ngroup. A \r\nrecent publication by journalist Gerardo Reyes<\/A> \r\nin Univisi\u00f3n revealed that both Saab and Pulido are \r\nbeing investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration \r\n(DEA).<\/p>\n\n Group \r\nGrand Limited was registered in Hong Kong in 2013 and, according to the \r\nregistration papers, from May 7, 2015 to February 24, 2017, it had Shadi Nain \r\nSaab Certain, a relative of Alex Saab, as a shareholder and beneficiary. The \r\nconnection between both is repeated in two foundations registered on the same \r\nday in Panama four years ago, and in company Saab & Company, registered in \r\n2004 in Barranquilla and dissolved in 2014, according to the Chamber of Commerce \r\nof that northeastern Colombian city.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n The \r\nkinship between both is not the only evidence of the relationship between Global \r\nBuilding Fund and Group Grand Limited. The contact address of Shadi Saab, \r\nincluded in the Hong Kong register, coincides with the location of one of the \r\ntwo offices of Global Construction Fund in Centro Galip\u00e1n in El Rosal, an \r\nexclusive financial area in Caracas. The detail of the address will be another \r\nsignal to follow the almost ghostly presence in Venezuela of Group Grand \r\nLimited, a company without Tax Information Registry (RIF) or registration with \r\nthe National Register of Contractors (RNC).<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cYes. The thing is that we run two offices, one in Centro Galip\u00e1n and one here.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n In \r\nthe invoices issued by Group Grand Limited to the Goods and Services Trading \r\nCompany of the State of T\u00e1chira (Cobiserta), attached to the Governor\u2019s Office \r\nof that entity, the address leads again to the offices of the Global \r\nConstruction Fund in Caracas. That information was repeated on the company's \r\nwebsite, but it was modified just after they were contacted by telephone to ask \r\nthem to have an interview for this report. \"I will contact the legal counsels \r\nand they will communicate with you,\" they said on that occasion. There was no \r\nformal response by its representatives on the relationship with Group Grand \r\nLimited. Only a source related to the company merely declared being unaware of \r\nwhy the company in Hong Kong had its headquarters in the same address in \r\nCaracas. \"Global Fund is engaged in construction only,\" the source \r\naffirmed.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n Upon \r\ncalling to the new contact details published on the website of Group Grand \r\nLimited, the answer was that the company had two headquarters in Caracas. \"Yes. \r\nThe thing is that we run two offices, one in Centro Galip\u00e1n and one here,\" \r\nexplained a woman on the other side of the phone. That time, they give no \r\nresponse as to our interview request either. Finally, after calling to an \r\ninternational phone number that appears on the invoices of Group Grand Limited, \r\na man with a Colombian accent, identified as Carlos, denied the link with Global \r\nConstruction Fund: \"What is that, man? You're wrong, this is a Hong Kong \r\ncompany,\" he said quickly and promised that he would get back to us within two \r\ndays about the interview, which never \r\nhappened.<\/p>\n\n The \r\ngreen light for the business between Group Grand Limited and the State \r\nGovernment of T\u00e1chira turned on on October 10, 2016. That is the date of a \r\npunto de cuenta<\/I> (memorandum requesting approval) whereby Jos\u00e9 Gregorio \r\nVielma Mora requested Nicol\u00e1s Maduro the \"exoneration of the payment of import \r\ntaxes, customs fees, Value Added Tax (VAT), 1% taxes, operational and logistical \r\nexpenses of Bolipuertos,\" related to a \"special food supply plan\" that would \r\nentail the acquisition of \"ten million food combos to be distributed to the \r\nVenezuelan people through fair mechanisms, in order to face the economic war \r\npromoted by sectors of the national and international \r\nopposition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n The resources would come from the National Development Fund (Fonden)<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n Based \r\non the schedule presented in the document, 2 million combos would be delivered \r\nin December 2016, and the remaining 8 million between January and February of \r\nthe current year. Maduro endorsed Vielma Mora\u2019s request and also authorized 340 \r\nmillion dollars for the company of the State Government of T\u00e1chira to execute \r\nthe business plan. The funds would come from the National Development Fund \r\n(Fonden), an entity created in 2005 by Hugo Ch\u00e1vez to discretionally manage part \r\nof the international reserves and Venezuelan oil revenue, according to the \r\nletter from Fonden's Executive Secretary Arlen Pi\u00f1ate to an official of the \r\nState Government of T\u00e1chira, Jos\u00e9 Salvador Bol\u00edvar.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n \"Based \r\non agreement No. MPPBF-Fonden-CATF 2016-074, signed between its representative \r\nand the Fondo de Desarrollo Nacional, S.A. (National Development Fund), and the \r\nmemorandum requesting approval <\/I>without number, of October 10, 2016, \r\napproved by the President of the Republic, the currencies approved for a total \r\namount of three hundred and forty million U.S. dollars (USD 340,000,000) for the \r\nacquisition of essential goods, including food, must be paid at the exchange \r\nrate of the protected foreign currency (Dipro), under the provisions of exchange \r\nagreement number 35,\" says the letter dated October 10, \r\n2016.<\/p>\n\n\n The \r\nletter from the executive secretary of Fonden reveals the magnitude of the \r\nbusiness. The 340 million U.S. dollars approved by Maduro for Vielma Mora \r\nexceeded the 274.2 million U.S. dollars that the extinct Foreign Exchange \r\nAdministration Commission (Cadivi) paid for Polar Foods from 2004 to 2012, or \r\nmore than half of the 595.2 million U.S. dollars that the division of Cervecer\u00eda \r\nPolar received in the same period, and this is the largest business group in the \r\ncountry. The US$ 340 million equal today a quarter of the debt accumulated by \r\ncompanies grouped in the Venezuelan Chamber of Food Industry (Cavidea) with its \r\nsuppliers abroad for imports not yet paid by the \r\nauthorities.<\/p>\n\n From \r\nthe papers, it is evident that the Venezuelan Government manages preferential \r\ncurrencies at its discretion, at 10 bolivars per U.S. dollar, an insignificant \r\nvalue if compared to the \"curb market\" dollar, almost 500 times higher. Saved \r\nfor Procter & Gamble and MSD Farmac\u00e9utica, no private company had foreign \r\ncurrency payments for an amount close to those US$ 340 million in 2015 or 2016. \r\nAlex Saab did get a better deal.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n Group \r\nGrand Limited takes a good part of the US$ 340 million cake. Between January 8 \r\nand 30 of the current year, the company issued at least 149 invoices to the \r\ncompany of the State Government of T\u00e1chira for about 212.3 million U.S. dollars \r\ncorresponding to the sale of a total of 95.1 million kg (209,659,611.34 lb) of \r\nfood \u2014an average of US$ 2.23 per kilo.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n In \r\nthe business Group Grand Limited only acts as a trader and charges in advance. \r\nThe goods shipped were mayonnaise, beans, canned tuna, pasta, precooked corn \r\nflour, refined vegetable oil, tomato sauce, sugar, rice, milk powder and \r\nlentils.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n Several \r\nentrepreneurs agree that the products are overpriced, considering that they were \r\nbought as wholesale products. For example, Group Grand Limited charged US$ 6.29 \r\nper kilo of tuna, A \r\nsearch for international prices confirms the opinion of the entrepreneur. In \r\nsupermarkets in Colombia, for example, the tomato sauce that Group Grand Limited \r\nbilled at US$ 7.39 does not exceed US$ 5. Something similar occurred with canned \r\ntuna. Venezuelan supermarkets buy the 140-gram (5 oz) presentation at around 1 \r\nto 2 U.S. dollars. The same happens with grains and pasta. \"We are buying beans \r\nat US$ 0.99 a kilo and they are selling it at US$ 1.77,\" warned another \r\nentrepreneur. \"The cost of the pasta we import ranges from US$ 1 to US$ 1.25 per \r\nkilo, but they charge it at US$ 2.22.\" In both cases the surcharge is around \r\n80%.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n On \r\nnumerous occasions, Cavidea has questioned the fact that the Government favors \r\nimports of finished products rather than the purchase of raw materials for \r\ncompanies. In that organization they repeat that \"with one million U.S. dollars \r\nthe national industry produces five times more than it would be obtained by \r\nimports.\" Juan Pablo Olalquiaga, president of the Venezuelan Confederation of \r\nIndustrialists (Conindustria), has a similar position. \"The CLAPs sell imported \r\nproducts that generate work in other countries, it is a highly inefficient use \r\nof foreign exchange,\" he said recently in a press \r\nconference.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n When \r\nadding each product sold by Group Grand Limited to the box, the CLAPs - with \r\nabout 16 kilos of products - would cost approximately US$ 34, which at the rate \r\nof 10 bolivars per U.S. dollar, would be equal to Bs. 340, a figure well below \r\nbetween the 12 thousand to 18 thousand bolivars of the official price. These \r\nfigures have alarmed members of the Venezuelan opposition, who have been \r\nreporting corruption in the CLAP system, as well as inconsistencies in prices \r\nfor months. The figures also bring down the recent version of the Minister of \r\nForeign Trade and Foreign Investment Jesus Far\u00eda, who assured that the CLAPs \r\nwere being imported at the complementary exchange rate (Dicom) set at around Bs. \r\n700 per U.S. dollar.<\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/23042017-2.png\")
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<\/div><\/div>A Ghost Company<\/h2>\n\n\n
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<\/div><\/div>A Booming Business<\/h2>\n\n\n
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US$ 7.39 for tomato sauce, and US$ 8.17 for mayonnaise, to \r\nmention those with the highest surcharge. \"The prices are exaggerated, very \r\nhigh,\" says a food sector entrepreneur after analyzing the \r\nbills.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/23042017-10.png\")
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