The Public Ministry, under the aegis of Luisa Ortega Díaz, had prepared the request for preventive judicial deprivation of liberty, and its corresponding arrest warrant, against Iris Varela, at the time minister for the Penitentiary Service, according to a document to the who had access The National.
Varela was charged with the crimes of embezzlement, aggravated embezzlement, false allegation and association to commit a crime linked “with the irregularities that occurred in the public contracts held by the mercantile company Constructora Cresmo, CA.”
The document explains that the investigation against Varela was initiated on September 29, 2016 by the Fourth Prosecutor at the national level with jurisdiction against corruption after a complaint filed by Humberto Prado, director of the Venezuelan Prison Observatory; Daniela Guerra, General Director of the Zulia State Human Rights Commission; and María Mercedes De Freitas, executive director of Transparencia Venezuela who “they denounced loss, deterioration and damage to public assets that were in the custody of the Ministry of People’s Power for the Penitentiary Service under the direction of citizen María Iris Varela Rangel, in her capacity as Minister of People’s Power for the Penitentiary Service”.
The measure was not executed because Ortega Díaz was separated from the Public Ministry in August 2017 by the government of Nicolás Maduro.
Iris Varela and the detention center of Zulia
Varela announced on December 5, 2012 the construction of the Detention Center for Judicial Prosecuted Men and Women of the state of Zulia, in the municipality of San Francisco, jointly with the National Fund for Penitentiary Buildings.
On December 17, 2012, Fonep contracted Constructora Cresmo, CA, for the execution of the work, which would begin on January 2, 2013 and end on May 29, 2015, as can be deduced from the information reflected in the National Registry of Contractors (RNC).
On December 4, 2013, Fonep signed a second contract to continue the works, starting on December 26, 2013 and ending on December 31, 2014.
For the first contract, 130,660,866.54 bolívares were disbursed and for the second contract, 78,443,568.10 bolívares were awarded, for a total sum of 209,104,434.64 bolívares.
As indicated by the Public Ministry, there were no bids or competitions, but the contracting was done by direct award, without complying with the necessary budgets and requirements.
“The Detention Center was not built despite the aforementioned budgetary allocations corresponding to the Detention Center for Judicial Prosecuted Men and Women of Zulia state and no detail was found regarding the surrender in the account corresponding to the Ministry of People’s Power for the Penitentiary Service” , he warns.
The Venezuelan Prison Observatory, Transparency Venezuela and Codhez carried out two observation missions at the construction site, the first on April 19, 2016 and the second on August 23, 2016. On both occasions, deterioration and destruction were recorded. of the constructed buildings, theft of parts of the construction, abandonment and lack of surveillance.
budget variance
The Public Ministry pointed out that Iris Varela, in her capacity as minister, “incurred in the deviation of the assigned budget and therefore embezzlement is presumed, due to the large initial allocation of resources, the prison emergency declared by the Executive, the absence accountability and the non-completion of the penitentiary building”.
And he adds: Iris Varela “observed accountability in relation to the resources she received from the National Fund for Penitentiary Buildings for the construction of 24 penitentiary centers, which to date have not been built.”
Finally, it details that the Comptroller General of the Republic never initiated any investigation in this regard. Nor did he ask the Public Ministry to punish those responsible for the loss of public resources.
