Monday, March 10, 2008

The road to become a Chavista business man is paved with bribing politicians, government and high ranking officials.

Lovely. The man with the colorful Easter bunnies is corrupted multi-millionaire Franklin Duran, who made his fortune under Chavez regime and now lies under an American prison charged to be illegal Venezuelan government agent working inside the US without notification to the Attorney General. The guy is even cocky enough to write his own wikipedia page as it was posted before (now tainted a little bit by reality by not-so biased editor who decided to post about the suitcase scandal). He also have a website of his "sucessful" company.


In December, Venezuelan multimillionaire Franklin Duran told agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation that he loved traveling to his mansion on the wealthy island enclave of Key Biscayne to "scuba dive, swim with the dolphins and have peace of mind."

Peace of mind for Mr. Duran may be hard to find these days. The owner of Industrias Venoco CA, a leading Venezuelan petrochemical company and lubricants manufacturer, is being held without bail in Miami on charges related to a cash-stuffed suitcase at the center of an international scandal involving the U.S., Argentina and Venezuela. He could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

After his December arrest, Mr. Duran was interviewed by FBI agents. In the FBI's account of the interrogation, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, he described widespread corruption in the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chávez. At one point in the interview, according to the FBI account, Mr. Duran says his rise as a businessman was paved by bribing "politicians, government officials, and high ranking officials."

Mr. Duran's statements also provide a fascinating glimpse into Venezuela's "Boli-burgueses," or Bolivarian bourgeoisie, a class of newly rich businessmen who share an extravagant lifestyle, boast close ties with Mr. Chavez's government and its self-proclaimed "Bolivarian Revolution," and make Miami their playground of choice.

Keep reading about this article published today on WSJ on Miguel's blog here.

This is the problem with this revolution, who is not really a revolution, is more of the same lame and corrupt governments that Venezuela had had but worst!!! Since this one is also corrupt, like many other Venezuelan government, but with the difference that the others always respected to live in "Democracy". Not the finest democracy on the planet, but free enough if comparing to what Hugo Chavez is doing right now.

Venezuela NEVER will find peace until criminals like this guy, and the master of all, the King of the country, be judged and put to jail for life without parole by Venezuelans on Venezuelan soil, that is, in the case of Duran, Kaufman etc... after the come out American justice, if they ever do.

And yet people are stupid enough to eat the story that Hugo and his ministers tell daily on Venezuelan TV about the misery they are living in Venezuela right now is CIA and the gringos' fault. Wake up imbeciles!

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