The former mayor of the Guanta municipality, Anzoátegui state, Jhonnatan Marin, achieved a considerable reduction in his sentence for having collaborated with the opposition against President Nicolás Maduro.
As revealed by the Associated Press journalist, Joshua Goodman through his Twitter account, Marín would have been sentenced this Wednesday to only 27 months in prison after a considerable sharp reduction of the initial sentence of 5 years, for which the prosecutors called “substantial assistance”, according to the post published on his Twitter account
“The former mayor of Venezuela, Jhonnatan Marin, was sentenced today to 27 months in prison after a sharp reduction for what prosecutors called “substantial assistance.” Marin’s attorney says Marin “devoted money, time and close connections” to help the US-backed opposition replace Maduro,” the post reads.
Another of the arguments outlined by the defense to obtain the drastic reduction of Marín’s sentence from 5 years to 27 months was that he used his professional connections for the campaign orchestrated from the United States against the government of Nicolás Maduro, which would have been established in the agreement signed by it when it was delivered in Miami in April 2022.
As part of judicial agreement signed in MiamiMarín assured that he fully cooperated with the federal agents that are investigating the PDVSA case.
» Marín even gave his money, time and close connections to this cause. As a former mayor of Guanta, Marín has maintained relationships with other political leaders. He used these relationships to start conversations with Leopoldo López, Carlos Vecchio and Julio Borges,” reads the defense text that Goodman incorporates on his Twitter, thus leaving Marín’s evident relationship of cooperation with the opposition and the US government in favor of to get an obvious
The former mayor pleaded guilty in Miami in June of this year to accepting 3.8 million dollars in bribes in exchange for directing contracts from foreign joint ventures towards government officials and the Armed Forces.
Jhonnathan Marín, as a member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), was president of the port city of Guanta in Anzoátegui state, for almost a decade until 2017, when he resigned and fled Venezuela amid a major oil purge. state-owned PDVSA after the corruption investigations undertaken by the National Executive.
In April, he quietly turned himself in in Miami on the sole charge of conspiring to commit a crime against the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He was released the same day on $100,000 bail, according to court records.
Last September, the Attorney General of the Republic, Tarek William Saab, made public the statements of the former Vice President of Finance of PDVSA, Victor Aularwho linked explained the relationship of former minister Rafael Ramírez with the former mayor of Guanta, Jhonnathan Marín in the PDVSA corruption plot and Marín’s link with corruption in PetroCedeño.
On August 30, the Public Ministry began the investigation against Rafael Ramírez for leading the most serious corruption scheme in the oil industry, denounced by the Minister of People’s Power for Petroleum, Tareck El Aissami.
El Aissami reported that the evidence presented to the attorney general reveals the “most serious corruption scheme ever known against our oil industry.”
