Published at: 02/10/2024 09:00 PM

(EL NACIONAL, October 1, 1979)

• The then Attorney General of the Republic, Pedro J. Mantelini, requested before the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) the prosecution of the former governor of Caracas and former president of the Simon Bolivar Center, Diego Arria Salicetti, who was involved in the crime of embezzlement in the purchase of land in Antímano.
• Initially, this investigation determined that the former governor of the Federal District, Diego Arria and several businessmen, defrauded the nation by buying land in Antímano in the amount of 40 million bolivars (U$D 9,302,325.58).
• In 1979, an arrest warrant was issued against the defendants, which was later revoked. The CSJ shelved the file.
• It was found that the company C.A. Coradelca purchased 300,000 square meters of land in Antímano for Bs. 1,500,000, that same day it sold it for Bs. 9,000,000 to Edificadora Horizontal, C.A.; this company sold it to the Simon Bolivar Center (CSB), for Bs. 25,594,096.80.
• Another corruption scandal, involving Arria, was the one reported by the publisher Jorge Olavarría and the journalist Estaban Rey, who published a report on the irregularities in the hasty purchase, with a surcharge of Bs. 75,095,200, oo (U$D 17,464,000, oo) of 800 IKARUS buses (whose floors were made of cardboard stone).
• Governor Arria wrote a check for 100 million bolivars and the faulty transport units were purchased in cash. All this is contrary to the legal procedures of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic and the regulations of the BCV.
• Seven months later, in January 1975, Governor Arria signed the British Leyland-Ikarus contract in London for the equally hasty and fraudulent acquisition of another 400 buses of this brand for U$D 26,400.00, oo.
• The Chamber of Transport reported that these transport units were not suitable because there was no availability of spare parts of these brands, they were not resistant to tropical conditions. Other buses (Mercedes Benz and Blue Bird), superior in every way, would cost much less.
• Soon after the fraudulent purchase, the Ikarus and Leyland buses were cornered as scrap metal on the grounds of the Municipal Transportation Institute, where they were seen for many years as testimony to an unresponsible crime.
• In short, during his tenure at the head of the Federal District Government and president of the CSB, Arria, on account of overpricing and overdraft of bearer checks for the ghost payroll and anonymous workers of AD's CEN, misappropriated U$D 26,000,000.

Mazo News Team