Oscar Rafael Aponte Landaeta, the former PDVSA manager whose criminal proceedings ordered the resurrection of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, resides in Miami, United States, according to his social networks.
On December 4, the Criminal Chamber published sentence number 670 by which a previous decision that acquitted Aponte Landaeta of the crimes charged in March 2020 when he was arrested was annulled; namely: own fraudulent embezzlement, own corruption, influence peddling, conspiracy and concert of official with contractors.
These crimes were allegedly committed by Aponte Landaeta when he served as president of Aceites y Solventes Venezolanos (Vassa), a company attached to PDVSA.
This subject dedicated himself to “diverting strategic materials such as lubricants, greases and sulfonic acid to other states of the country to later be smuggled abroad.” These criminal actions were committed through the manipulation of the state company’s computer systems, PDVSA explained at the time in a statement.
The 6th Trial Court of Carabobo acquitted Aponte Landaeta in August 2022 of all the crimes with which he was accused. Two years later (December 2024), the Criminal Chamber annulled that decision of the aforementioned Carabobo court, among other actions.
Likewise, the magistrates ordered that another court in Carabobo convene a preliminary hearing to define whether or not to order a new trial for the former former PDVSA manager.
But here the subject is not in Venezuela. On his Instagram account oscaraponte41 displays photographs of his stay in Miami, United States. In one of the graphics he is seen wearing a blue flannel and the inscription that says “Miami Dade College.” In another photo, Aponte Landaeta, who is a retired colonel of the Bolivarian National Guard, appears on the balcony of an apartment and in a fourth image he is seen displaying a vehicle.
