Foto / Archivo
La Gran Aldea highlighted in a recent post on X that in Venezuela, “sports have become more than just passion. Today, it is also a tool for power, censorship, and a means of image laundering for the regime.” This statement gains significance with the backing of three investigations documenting how football, baseball, and basketball have been taken over by military personnel, allied businessmen, and government officials, compromising the competitive and autonomous spirit of these sports and transforming them into instruments of political control.
Football: political power and shady businesses
In the realm of football, the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) is led by Jorge Andrés Giménez Ochoa, a businessman with no experience in sports, whose appointment indicates political interference within the organization. The investigation suggests that clubs and structures of the FVF are under the influence of pro-Chavismo businessmen, military personnel, and political operators, where loyalty to the regime prevails over sporting merit.
Baseball: the uniform of power
Baseball, the nation’s flagship sport, is also affected by networks of government influence:
• Navegantes del Magallanes, presided over by Giuseppe Palmisano, a figure connected to the Maduro regime.
• Tigres de Aragua, influenced by Esteban Trapiello, an associate of Tareck El Aissami.
• Tiburones de La Guaira, purchased by shipping businessman Wilmer Ruperti, an ally of the regime.
• Caribes de Anzoátegui, led by former major leaguer and PSUV ex-mayor Magglio Ordóñez, a political associate of Tarek William Saab.
The article also notes the state’s attempt to intervene in the Bravos de Margarita and recalls the OFAC sanctions against Magallanes and Tigres de Aragua (2019–2022). Additionally, it reveals how the establishment of the Major Professional Baseball League (LMBP) in 2021 led to teams being controlled by businessmen close to the regime, some of whom are suspected of using these franchises as a means of money laundering.
Basketball: a board of corruption and control
In basketball, the Professional Basketball Super League (SPB) has been overtaken by political and military leaders with a history of repression. Among them are:
• Hanthony Coello, president of the Venezuelan Basketball Federation and a PSUV deputy.
• Alexander Granko Arteaga, a National Guard colonel and senior official of DGCIM, linked to the Gladiadores de Anzoátegui.
• Leonel García Rivas, head of Intelligence of the National Bolivarian Police, connected to the Spartans of the Capital District.
• Juan Carlos Cuencas Vivas, alternate magistrate of the TSJ, associated with Centauros de Portuguesa.
• “Mimou” Vargas, a PSUV deputy and president of Frontinos del Táchira.
One of the starkest symbols of this control is the holding of official matches at the Helicoide gym, seat of SEBIN and a center of detention and torture, exposing the use of sports as authoritarian propaganda.
A court taken over by politics
The three reports from La Gran Aldea clearly show that no sports space remains untouched: football, baseball, and basketball are all in the hands of military personnel, officials, and businessmen linked to the Nicolás Maduro regime. Sports, once a refuge of identity and national pride, have been transformed into platforms of power, censorship, and shady businesses, as the portal summarized in its X post: a field where politics has entered the court “and not to play fair.”