They Might As Well Close Down All of Venezuela
By Onai
HAVANA TIMES – The SENIAT is the executive body of the national tax administration in Venezuela. Its Superintendent is Jose David Cabello. If the last name sounds familiar, you are not mistaken: Yes, he is the brother of the powerful Diosdado Cabello, more commonly known these days as the Coyote, or the shadow of Maria Corina Machado.
It all began with a truck and a sound system that, at the end of 2023, provided services to the opposition candidate when she traveled to Nueva Esparta. She said at the time: “I regret to start this conversation by reporting to the Venezuelans an unusual event that has just occurred. After our activity ended, members of the National Guard appeared. At this moment, they have detained both the truck from where I spoke and the sound equipment. They also detained the people, who live off this work. We rented this service from them.”
This is how María Corina Machado denounced the first acts of harassment towards people who provided their services.
Recently, something similar happened in Corozo Pando, which is on the road to the Apure plains and has no more than 500 inhabitants. A humble family, with a small empanada business, a few hours after offering their service to the opposition candidate, received a visit from a SENIAT commission, with their red vests and shiny trucks.
In more than 20 years, they had never received a visit from SENIAT, but for “some” reason, the empanada business caught the attention of the officials at this moment.
But this has been just one of the most notable cases, among all those in which, after the visit of the members of Vente Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado’s party, the government fines and or closes down businesses or people who offer accommodation, transportation, or logistics services.
Every hotel or inn where the members of Maria Corina’s team have stayed has been fined and closed. In Lara, they even sent drones to determine exactly which inn they would stay at.
From hotels with a large influx of public to the humble boatman who provided the service of crossing the river in the state of Apure, all have received punishment from the tax administration body, or from the national guard and the police who confiscate and threaten.
If María Corina continues to move around all Venezuela, they might as well close everything down at once.