Published at: 11/06/2025 09:00 PM

(DIARIO DE CARACAS, May 27, 1989, EL NACIONAL, July 22, 1989 and DICTIONARY OF CORRUPTION IN VENEZUELA, VOL. 3)

Case: RECADI MOLINERAS - GRAMOVEN C.A.

Crime: Fraudulent use of public funds in the overbilling of wheat imports to obtain preferential currencies from the Differential Exchange Regime (RECADI), authorized by the Prime Minister, Jaime Lusinchi.

Defendants: MONACA, MOLVENCA and GRAMOVEN. In this last company, the Venezuelan Ambassador to Argentina, Nicomedes Zuloaga, as an active partner of the latter, participated in the deliberations and decision-making of its board of directors.

Amount defrauded: U$D 26,000,000.00

Complaint: A study carried out by postgraduate students from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) and officers of the Armed Forces determined that Venezuela imported wheat at extremely high prices, well above the prices that served as a reference in the market. Before the RECADI fraud scandal exploded, a list of 3,000 companies was discovered that, through overbilling and bribery, used $11,000,000,000 (11 billion) for purposes other than those declared. Among them are wheat millers.

Conclusions: Based on research carried out by the Armed Forces and based on the postgraduate thesis “The wheat agri-food circle, imports, prices and industrial production”, carried out by professors and students of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, it was concluded that:

• “Venezuela was buying wheat more expensive every day, what is getting cheaper in the market every day...”.
• Involved in this corruption scheme were the President of the Republic, Jaime Lusinchi, his private secretary, Blanca Ibáñez, and part of the ministerial train.
• Nicomedes Zuloaga was charged, in his dual capacity as director of the GRAMOVEN milling company and Venezuelan ambassador to Argentina.
• Given the conclusions of the degree thesis, Judge Luis Guillermo La Riva was able to demonstrate that Nicomedes Zuloaga, acting as Venezuelan Ambassador to Argentina, constantly traveled to Caracas to join the GRAMOVEN board of directors, so decisions were taken in his presence and with his approval.
• It was demonstrated that the above-mentioned ambassador, in the exercise of his position, participated in the request, with a surcharge, for preferential dollars from RECADI, so that, through the company GRAMOVEN C.A., wheat could be imported from Argentina and the United States, overbilling the real costs of these transactions.
• Lt. Víctor Ali Piña Godoy was responsible for complying with the arrest warrant to imprison Ambassador Zuloaga for the crime of fraudulent use of public funds, for which he handcuffed the detainee.
• At that time, Zuloaga threatened to destroy the officer's military career and private life, for which he used the full weight of his surname, as Master of the Valley.
• In retaliation, Lt. Piña Godoy was arrested for handcuffing Nicomedes Zuloaga and the Minister of Defense, as a result, ordered the delay in his promotion.
• Soon after, Lt. Piña was arbitrarily arrested by DISIP agents, who planted a kilo and a half of cocaine on him.
• Later, a file was also planted for attempted suicide, while that police force was being held in the cells.
• The sign of “suicide” at that time was a certain death sentence, he had to ask for leave and leave his homeland.
• Coincidentally, all the lawsuits, cases and the respective investigations that followed Nicomedes Zuloaga were removed from the jurisdiction of Judge La Riva López, at a time when he had agreed and ready for execution, detention measures, freezing of funds and a ban on leaving the country against Zuloaga and other businessmen related to undue profit.
• By orders of Carlos Andrés Pérez, the cases were redistributed to other judges, directly controlled by him. In this way, judicial authority was diluted, the majesty of justice tainted and all its guiding principles violated.
• It should be remembered that on November 22, 1861, Nicomedes Zuloaga Aguirre, the great-grandfather of this illustrious accused of corruption crimes, joined “a commission made up of Manuel Felipe de Tovar, Pedro Gual, Juan José Mendoza, Francisco de la Madriz, Federico Núñez de Aguilar and Aureliano Otáñez, who implored the intervention of a foreign power offered to hand over shreds of their homeland, in exchange for imposing order and respect on their threatened properties”. In these terms, they proposed to England to hand over part of our territories, Guiana Essequiba, in exchange for invading Venezuela.

Mazo News Team