Jhonnathan Marín, former Chavista mayor of Guanta, in Anzoátegui state, accused Attorney General Tarek William Saab of leading the largest corruption network in Venezuela together with his brother Douglas Saab, although he did not show evidence.
“The largest network of corruption in Venezuela that operates is directed by you together with your brother Douglas Saab. Your brother, in your name, has threatened all the middle and low officials of PDVSA and part of the deputy managers. I can show you why, and deny what I’m telling you,” said the former official in a live broadcast through his Twitter account. Instagram.
Marín, who resigned from his position in a surprise manner five years ago and left the country amid accusations of corruption in the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, also questioned where is the “corruption plot” of Alejandro Ruiz, owner of the construction company Conkor, alleged partner and figurehead of Saab.
“Because you have persecuted all the businessmen of Anzoátegui and the east of the country, because you are the prosecutor of Anzoátegui and the east. Where is Alejandro Ruiz’s corruption scheme? Does not exist. And the files that were there were ordered to be deleted. Do you know why you did it? Because he is your partner, and he is your figurehead,” he said.
The former mayor also demanded that the attorney general explain to Venezuelans how a man, whom he identified as Gabriel Urbaje and who would have been part of the Saab team when he was governor of Anzoátegui, “handles large contracts” in Petróleos de Venezuela alongside Douglas Saab.
assured that Urbaje celebrated the marriage of his son in Cancun, Mexico. And that planes were rented for that and a big party was held. Marín asked where an official obtains that amount of money to cover such expenses.
“They create a file once morest me”
Jhonnathan Marín assured that Tarek William Saab has devoted himself in recent years to creating a file for criminalize his name “in a cowardly, ruthless, systematic, obsessive and sick way”. He added that the Chavista prosecutor has accused him not only before the Venezuelans but also before the government of Nicolás Maduro.
“It is a public and notorious fact the persecution that this man has once morest me and my family. This has a root, but I want to refer to something that happened two days ago: this human rights violator presented to public opinion a man named Víctor Aular, former manager of PDVSA, in a show, where he interrogated him. It is clearly seen how the man reads a script where he, in some way, uses the terms of the human rights violator Tarek William Saab”, he expressed.
Aular, who held the position of Vice President of Finance at PDVSA, stated on September 1 that Marín was part of a network of corruption in the state oil company, in which Rafael Ramírez is also mentioned, former oil minister and former president of PDVSA. Supposedly, the former mayor of Guanta worked for an eventual Ramírez presidential campaign.
“Nothing to do with Rafael Ramírez”
“Aular says verbatim, reading what they sent him to say, that he met with me in New York City to discuss, among other things, a financing issue for an alleged candidacy of Rafael Ramírez for the Presidency of the Republic of Venezuela. . I have nothing to do with any kind of election campaign or Rafael Ramirez or anyone, at all. I automatically distance myself from that,” he said.
He assured that this statement lacks variety and highlighted the conditions under which the Vice President of Finance of PDVSA would have given those statements.
“He is able to say that and more because it is a script that they put him to say, in my case, I am not going to refer to the rest. I have to defend myself once morest the infamy of this man (Tarek William Saab) in his terrible obsession with me, because we have a personal and political problem, which he does not finish overcoming and because, thank God, I did not give him the pleasure of seeing me imprisoned in his dungeons and I did not become another political prisoner,” he said.
“Because he has personal political prisoners. He has taken advantage of the position and the trust that the constituent gave him to usurp a position and I speak of usurpation because if he were holding the position regularly, with the objective conditions that a serious and responsible prosecutor in a country should have, he would not be acting in the way he has acted in recent years . Everything that this man has done is public and notorious, not just this person,” he added.
“Systematic violator of human rights”
The former mayor of Guanta reiterated that Saab is a violator of human rights.
“A terrible trauma for the people of Venezuela and he has dedicated himself to persecuting his political opponents of the past and persecuting any businessman who does not comply with his demands. And that is why we refer to this recent event, where he puts a person to testify once morest me and to affirm, as he has done in the past, processes once morest me”, he expressed.
Marín assured that all the files currently in progress in Venezuela once morest him lack legality and legal support without establishing a minimum criterion for criminal action. But, he emphasized, he will prove it in the future with the evidence that he claims to have and that he will continue to collect.
“Saab forced the Coko Sosa”
Marín also stated that one of the cases once morest him is related to an accusation made by the attorney general following allegedly forced Venezuelan actor Manuel “Coko” Sosa to sign a plea in which he linked him to alleged acts of corruption of Petróleos de Venezuela.
Sosa reappeared in mid-March following serving just over four years in prison for his alleged link withn acts of corruption in Petropiar, in complicity with Pedro León, former general manager of the Orinoco Oil Belt, also known as the Czar of the Belt. It is unknown if the actor served the sentence in a prison or was granted the benefit of house arrest.
“The Coko Sosa sent me an emissary to apologize and explain that he had to do that because this man (Tarek William Saab) had threatened him; that if he didn’t sign the denunciation once morest me he was going to rot in jail. What happened to this person? Sign a plea once morest me, and we will prove it in the future, ”he said.
“Chávez kicked you out of Anzoátegui”
The former mayor of Guanta assured that Tarek William Saab is being persecuted for events that occurred in the past, when the prosecutor was in charge of the Government of Anzoátegui, and that is why he is related to alleged acts of corruption.
“What does not overcome is that he offered a mother and child center in Guanta when he was governor and did not comply. And I, together with a team and thanks to President Chávez, built a hospital, one of the most important in the east of the country, and we left it 92% running. And these are the things that this man does not overcome. That is the great truth,” he expressed.
Marin urged Saab to tell Venezuelans why Hugo Chávez “threw him” from Anzoátegui.
“The political world knows that and you also have to say what were your expressions when you arrived from Caracas and were informed by the political high command that you were no longer going to be the candidate. How did you express yourself regarding the political high command? That you have to say. Because somehow you felt that this was your empire and that you were untouchable. But Chávez realized who you were, a corrupt man who disguises himself as a poet, as a defender of human rights”, he stated.
“You do not forgive that never, ever, while you were governor and I was mayor, you were able to win an electoral process because we were part of the same political environment and the same party line at the time. And never with all the apparatus of the government, with the money you handled, with all your power, you might never win an electoral process in the municipality where I was mayor. And you have not been able to stain my name with all your lies, the Anzoatiguenses know who you are, ”he said.
