“How much?”: Venezuela opposition received bribe offers to give up congress

CARACAS, (Reuters) - In January, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed a major victory: congress lawmakers elected his favored candidate as National Assembly leader, putting the increasingly authoritarian nation’s last independent institution within his grasp.

Opponents cried foul, accusing the Venezuelan leader of intimidating and attempting to bribe lawmakers to oust Maduro’s arch-rival, opposition head Juan Guaido, in the Jan. 5 vote.

An examination by Reuters of the circumstances surrounding the vote shows there was evidence to support their accusations.

A previously undisclosed recording of a conversation between two congressmen - along with interviews with a dozen other lawmakers and unreported text messages sheds light on the ruling Socialist party’s strategy of making cash offers and threats to exploit divisions within Guaido’s coalition.

Maduro’s leftist government, branded a dictatorship by Washington and targeted by U.S. sanctions, denied using coercion, as did the newly elected head of congress,

Luis Parra.

In the recording, at 9 a.m. on Dec. 15, Kerrins Mavarez, a 34-year-old congressman for the coastal state of Falcon, took a phone call from a senior opposition figure worried the government was plotting to wrest control of congress.

The caller, Luis Stefanelli, told Mavarez he believed Maduro’s allies were trying to buy and scare opposition politicians into backing Parra.

Mavarez confirmed to Stefanelli he had received phone calls from an unnamed government emissary threatening him with arrest and asking how much money he wanted to change sides.

“I’m really scared,” said Mavarez, who did not identify the emissary. Mavarez said he had resisted the offer but asked Stefanelli for the opposition’s support: “Don’t leave me alone.”

“It’s important for us to know we can rely on you,” Stefanelli said in the recording, which he shared with Reuters, promising Mavarez that opposition leaders would back him.

“Your position will mark your life.” By the time of the Jan. 5 ballot,

Mavarez had made up his mind. He joined some 15 other opposition lawmakers in voting against Guaido’s re-election and instead backed Parra, who had aligned himself with Maduro’s Socialists.

At a news conference four days after the vote, Mavarez denied accusations by other opposition figures that he took a bribe and said he acted with “bravery” after Guaido failed to advance solutions to Venezuela’s economic and political crisis.

Asked by Reuters about the recording, Mavarez did not deny its authenticity and said both sides pressured him, but he voted “with full freedom.”

He accused the opposition of staging the threatening calls he received in December to assess if he was involved in a conspiracy, but did not give evidence for that. A spokesman for Guaido said no calls or messages were staged.

Reuters was unable to determine whether any bribes were actually made or who made the December calls. Stefanelli said he recorded Mavarez because he suspected that he already had been “bought,” without elaborating further.

Neither representatives for Parra nor

Venezuela’s Information Ministry responded to requests for comment.

The opposition politicians interviewed by Reuters said Parra’s allies in December had solicited 30 of their colleagues - the number needed to swing the majority with offers of up to $700,000, picking targets in financial need and frustrated with Guaido. They offered evidence for three cases, which are detailed in this story.

“They were calling up those who had doubts or who were unhappy with the leadership,” said lawmaker Jose Guerra.

Citing his conversations with colleagues targeted, Guerra said one lawmaker close to Parra, Jose Noriega, who was formerly in Guaido’s Popular Will party, made many of these calls.

Noriega denied this to Reuters. According to the deputies and people close to the Socialist party, Maduro wanted to take advantage of Guaido’s diminished popularity to place a new pliant opposition in congress that could pass legislation required by his government.

But, according to these people, Parra failed to sway enough opposition legislators.