Saturday, June 28, 2025. Simón Bolívar Monumental Stadium, located in the southwest of Caracas.
Servando and Florentino Primera, both sons of the late poet adopted by chavismo as an emblem, Alí Primera, and both also youth idols of the 90s, paraded across the playing field. They were the special guests for the day’s closing event, the final of the so-called Monumental League of football. They performed their greatest hits, energized the crowd, and presented one of the trophies. However, the audience didn’t fill the venue.
Other celebrities from the influencer scene in Venezuela 2.0 were also present, including bodybuilder Gianpiero El cubito Fusco, and comedians Breinel Zambrano, La Titi, and Andrés Gómez, Tito 10.
More than the match result – the win and title went to a team curiously named La Cosa Nostra – what truly mattered was the show. The occasion served as a crowning touch for a championship that was unofficial, lacking sanction from the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF), where since May 15, former stars of international football such as Spaniards Carles Puyol and José María Guti Gutiérrez, Brazil’s Marcelo Vieira, and the Dutch Clarence Seedorf, among others, had participated.
Indeed, for just over a month, the spectacle was monumental, even if this adjective didn’t quite match the poor attendance it managed to attract.
However, during those weeks, the Monumental League fulfilled the vision and mission outlined in its YouTube channel: “To offer a show of entertainment and good football in an unconventional setting, a baseball stadium (…) the most striking feature of this new championship is its atypical rules, which maintain interest, excitement in every competition, and entertainment in the stadium.”
Sports, showbiz, and entertainment are the promises that describe this business adventure, modeled after tournaments popular these days, such as the Spanish Kings League of 7-a-side football created by former footballer Gerard Piqué, which at one time featured the famous YouTuber Ibai Llanos.
Moreover, the local replica is bolstered by two extraordinary privileges granted by the Venezuelan state: one, the promotion and sponsorship of public companies; the other, the designation of the Monumental Stadium as a permanent venue for the championship.
It also stands out because everything unfolds under the watchful eye of a unique master, Vito Recchimurzo, a young man who arrived from high-stakes poker circuits and is the current owner of Portuguesa Football Club, a historic team in Venezuela’s professional football league.
The Barn of Fortune
Born in 1994, Vito Jhonny Recchimurzo Díaz, described by sources consulted for this work as an enthusiastic and ambitious young man, gained notoriety in Venezuelan football in February 2024 when his acquisition of Portuguesa F.C. was made official. At that moment, the transfer was handed over to him by Maiker Frías, then president of the team and a new businessman in the agro-industrial sector through his company Alimentos Venezolanos S&M (Alivensa), and close to the former coup officer of the Aviation, ex-governor of the state of Portuguesa, and for a long time, former Minister of Agriculture and Lands, Wilmar Castro Soteldo.
Portuguesa F.C. was the dominant team in Venezuelan professional football during the 1970s, financed by wealthy businessmen of Italian origin who enabled the signing of great global football stars such as the Brazilian Jairzinho. Its red and black vertical striped jersey has since its foundation evoked that of AC Milan.
Though those laurels are now a thing of the past, they didn’t deter Vito Recchimurzo when it came to pursuing the team and claiming it. It’s unclear what funds he used to achieve his aim, nor how much he had to commit for the transaction. However, what became evident early on in his still-youthful management was Recchimurzo’s failure in attempting to revive the team’s past glories. Between 2024 and 2025, seasons of drought in Portuguesa’s trophy showcase, various complaints from players and staff surfaced, who demanded overdue salaries and delayed payments. Although it certainly isn’t a new situation for the team or the league, Recchimurzo Díaz’s administration has not managed to overcome it.
His father, Vincenzo Recchimurzo Bertocchi, was registered until 2001 with the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security (IVSS) as part of the workforce at Tenería R.G. Toscana, C.A., a tannery in Barquisimeto, capital of the neighboring state of Lara. But just eight years later, in 2009, he founded the company Max Holdings International Limited, Inc. in the British Virgin Islands, a Caribbean tax haven.
The son, now a future owner of Portuguesa F.C., prematurely gained notoriety, perhaps undesirably, in 2017. Back then, Vito Recchimurzo Díaz faced a criminal accusation alongside Sebastián Lagreca Villaverde, for fraud and criminal conspiracy. The victim claimed the fraud amounted to $500,000. In the same legal action, his parents, Vincenzo Recchimurzo Bertocchi and Yulis Peregrina Díaz Pereira, the representative of the state of Monagas in the Miss Venezuela 1989 pageant, were accused of money laundering and conspiracy.
In the case file, which Armando.info accessed, the plaintiffs and their attorneys argued that “there are multiple victims of the same group of organized crime, operating in various states, particularly Miranda, Aragua, and the Capital District.”
The 10th Control Court of Aragua state went on to issue arrest warrants against the Recchimurzos and other defendants. “The risk of flight due to the economic conditions of the defendants (…) may facilitate their evasion from the process and obstruct the search for truth; moreover, they could influence reticently and stubbornly on the experts, witnesses, and victims who have also been threatened by these accused,” the case file reads.
Ultimately, the case was dismissed in the courts. Nevertheless, it continued to generate consequences: as late as December 2022, Recchimurzo’s accuser, Gabriel Rodríguez Dávila, reported being a victim of an assault at ECO, a nightclub in El Rosal, Caracas, owned and managed by Recchimurzo Díaz. In fact, Rodríguez was allegedly assaulted by Recchimurzo’s own bodyguards during an incident whose footage circulated on social media.
Remembered as much for those altercations, Recchimurzo is also notable for his poker-playing side. At least since 2017, Recchimurzo Díaz has participated in tournaments where he achieved prominent positions. His participation in the 2017 Sunday Million Anniversary by PokerStars received significant coverage. While now leading the Monumental League, he was recently spotted at a match alongside Brazilian football superstar Neymar, another notable gambler, during the BSOP Winter Millions 2025 tournament in São Paulo, Brazil.
‘Sportswashing’ to Revive a White Elephant
Without wasting time, Recchimurzo and his team set up the first office of the newly created Monumental League in 2023 at Torre Lamaletto in El Rosal, the former financial mile of Caracas. The building felt familiar to Recchimurzo junior and was therefore suitable, since it housed the administrative office of Portuguesa F.C. and beneath it, ECO, the nightclub he owns and manages.
Today, the league’s main office is located on the first floor of the Simón Bolívar Monumental Stadium in La Rinconada, Caracas. Internal sources within the league revealed to Armando.info that not just anyone gets to enjoy that privilege, and that only the approval of Nicolás Maduro himself makes such usufruct possible, with Jorge Eliéser Márquez and Juan Gabriel Linares Montilla serving as intermediaries.
Of the two military officials, the primary one is Márquez, a general in the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) who, after leaving the barracks, has become a multi-purpose bureaucrat whose star is rising within the regime’s hierarchy. He serves as Vice Minister of Public Works and Services, is a former Minister of the Presidency and Management Oversight in Nicolás Maduro’s cabinet, and Minister of Electric Energy. Previously, he headed the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) and the Socialist Telecommunications Corporation, where he imposed censorship and electronic surveillance. He is also the one overseeing the stadium through the Simón Bolívar Monumental Stadium Foundation. Now in 2025, despite a chavista candidate, Luis Caldera, just having taken over the governorship of Zulia state at the polls, Maduro appointed Márquez as the godfather or protector of the region, reflecting the trust the leader places in him. Conversely, Márquez has been sanctioned by the United States, Switzerland, the European Union, Canada, and Panama.
Linares Montilla, on the other hand, was the administrator of the Special Security and Protection Unit for State Personalities (Uesppe), under the Presidential Honor Guard, and director since 2023 of the administrative office of the same foundation managing stadium usage. Recently, he earned the rank of brigadier general.
Tasked by Maduro with managing the stadium, the military have taken on the mission of ensuring activities throughout the year. “The Monumental Stadium is directly controlled by Maduro. They built it and must utilize it. Since baseball [professional, whose “winter” season is the main event currently held regularly at the facilities] can only be seen four months a year, they need to give it another purpose,” explains a source, whose name, like the others, is omitted for security reasons.
This presidential mandate has been transferred to Recchimurzo, who thus became a key operator in the regime’s longstanding maneuver to impose its socioeconomic and cultural doctrine, which political scientist and social psychologist Ricardo Sucre sarcastically defined in a recent column as the “Maduro’s way of life: party, beach, work, salsa, and assuming that GDP growth comes from that vision.”
In this version of a flavorful authoritarianism, the Maduro regime has organized the Caribbean Series of baseball in 2024, definitively co-opted the FVF, and facilitated the takeover of professional baseball franchises, among other initiatives; when bread is short, let there be enough circuses. The Monumental League has become part of that framework not only for distraction but for local sportswashing.
The term sportswashing, though newly coined – some argue it only became a convention after the controversial European Games in 2015 in Baku, Azerbaijan, which the post-Soviet and oil-rich dictatorship of Ilham Aliyev used as a showcase to the world – has roots that date back at least to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, when Adolf Hitler wanted to use the neoclassical pomp of the event to project a sanitized, triumphant image of his Third Reich.
The UK House of Lords Library seeks to summarize the concept, cautioning at the outset that “it lacks a consensus definition. It has become a shorthand way to criticize (typically) non-democratic regimes or large corporations for investing in athletes, clubs, and world-renowned sporting events to distort illiberal, undemocratic, or exploitative practices in their countries or companies of origin.”
One of the global institutions studying this practice is Amnesty International. One of its most prominent observers is Carlos De Las Heras, responsible for the organization’s human rights efforts in Europe and the Middle East.
In comments for this story from Armando.info, De Las Heras clarifies that the case of the Venezuelan Monumental League, while not fitting precisely into the canonical notion of sportswashing, could be seen as “a kind of national sportswashing, to present an image to Venezuelans that has little to do with reality: human rights violations on the streets, torture, disappearances, and complete restrictions on freedom of expression. To sell an image of normalcy, of being current,” he expresses.
In light of his experience in the field, De Las Heras believes it “would be good or prudent for figures like Ronaldinho, Guti, and Puyol to use the platforms these events provide to speak about the human rights situation in Venezuela. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to happen because their agents surely instruct them to avoid certain matters.”
That Recchimurzo and his venture are at least functional to the regime’s sportswashing is confirmed by the sponsorships from state entities such as the oil company Pdvsa, the textile and bottling company Complejo Industrial Tiuna, the National Electric Corporation (Corpoelec), and the media and telecommunications regulator Conatel.
Additionally, the intangible benefits of the competition outweigh the financial ones, as evidenced by indications that it is not a lucrative business. “If you were doing things honestly, there wouldn’t even be a second edition of the league, because logic dictates it isn’t profitable,” concludes one source.
An employee of the Monumental League assured Armando.info that on the final date of the recent season, only about 10,000 of the 38,000 available seats were filled—something over a quarter of the stadium’s capacity, despite the relatively affordable ticket prices, ranging from six to 90 dollars.
Contracts accessed by Armando.info specify conditions for team enrollment in the league, including an initial fee of 85,000 dollars per franchise and subsequent payments of 35,000 dollars for subsequent seasons. If a team withdraws midway through the tournament, it must pay an additional 35,000 dollars penalty.
But even those contributions fall short of how the tournament covers its extravagant expenses. League sources disclosed to Armando.info that in 2024, Brazilian star Ronaldinho charged the league 250,000 dollars for his appearance. In 2025, Marcelo and Puyol each received 150,000 dollars.
“It’s a tournament for political circus and to ensure the stadium isn’t a white elephant. This is a publicity plan,” asserts one of the sources familiar with the league, consulted for this story.
Another internal source considers that “the business logic is that there is no business. It’s not profitable. There’s no way to pay 250,000 dollars to Ronaldinho without something shady behind it. Ticket sales won’t sustain that. There’s no logic or budget to back it. (…) and this year you brought Mateo, Puyol, Materazzi, Guti. I think it will always show red numbers.”
A third source points out that “the league is a whim of someone with money and influence. People with money who like football. That’s what I feel describes the Monumental League. Ticket income has been terrible [this year]. Last year attracted more people with Ronaldinho. It can help to sell an international image that the country is at the forefront because there are international figures.”
Regardless of whether the business is profitable or not, Vito Recchimurzo Díaz isn’t easily intimidated. He announces that soon the Monumental League will expand into basketball and baseball.
Directory of Contractors
Recchimurzo Díaz, notably, has experience as a state contractor via the company V&R Enterprises, C.A., where his mother is a partner. The company, dedicated to renting, buying, and selling electronic equipment, appears in the National Contractor Registry (RNC) as a supplier for the Ministry of Popular Power for National Commerce, led by another military officer, Luis Antonio Villegas Ramírez.
This isn’t an uncommon trait among franchise owners in the league. Furthermore, being a state contractor sometimes appears to be a prerequisite. A thorough review of Recchimurzo’s peers reflects this clearly.
In addition to the current champion La Cosa Nostra, represented in the league by Wilmer Goffredo, the 2025 season featured teams such as Los Extraterrestres, CLX, Patacones, Cacique, Navegantes de Caracas, Petroleros, Vergatarios, Vnet Jet, and Vikingos.
Behind Los Extraterrestres stands Mahmoud Handous, director of Advanta Producciones, the producer in charge of the Miss Venezuela pageant. Since 2013, Handous’s companies have been contractors for several government institutions, including Pdvsa, Caracas Mayor’s Office, Bolivarian National Armed Forces, CorpoMiranda, Televisora Venezolana Social Foundation (Tves), and the ministries of Communication and Information and Culture. The services provided were numerous, from deploying billboards to organizing events.
With Servicios Logísticos Caracas, C.A., between 2019 and 2023, Handous was contracted by the Venezuelan government through Fondo Cultural del Alba, S.A., the National Museums Foundation, the Autonomous Institute of the National Book, and Venezuelan Tourism (Venetur) for various services, from event organization to printing books; from sound and lighting rental for hotel surveillance.
CLX, another team, is an initiative from controversial social media influencer and interviewer Irrael Gómez, also author of a recent novel, who presents himself as a political advisor and crisis communication manager. In 2022, Gómez was identified by the family of Oscar Pérez, a scientist from the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations Corps (Cicpc), as the informant who would have facilitated the location and subsequent operation that led to the extrajudicial executions of Pérez and his group of rebels against Nicolás Maduro’s regime on January 15, 2018, in El Junquito, outside Caracas. Gómez’s sister, Johanna, is regarded as “the right hand of Tarek William Saab,” the chavista Attorney General and former governor of Anzoátegui state.
On the other hand, Cacique is led by Jimmy Meayke, a builder whose low profile contrasts with the public exposure of his partner in that club, Wilmer Ruperti, who also owns the baseball team Tiburones de La Guaira and the Venezuelan TV channel Canal I. Ruperti, a former merchant marine officer, has made rescuing chavismo his mission: he assisted Hugo Chávez in successfully overcoming the oil strike organized by the opposition between 2002 and 2003, and in 2016 paid for the services of the lawyers that would represent the so-called narco-nephews of first lady Cilia Flores, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, captured in Haiti by a covert operation of the United States drug enforcement agency, DEA. In return, the shipowner has benefited from large public contracts, especially in the oil sector.
Pierre Perozo, who sources consulted for this work note as close to Fidel Madroñero, a former presenter of the chavista television program Zurda Konducta and shareholder of the first division professional football team Deportivo Rayo Zuliano, is a veteran contractor for the company Constructora del Alba Bolivariana, attached to the Ministry of Housing and Habitat. His company Inversiones P.I.P. 2095, C.A. was awarded electrical complementary works and the construction of buildings and sports courts in La Guaira and Anzoátegui states between 2012 and 2017. He is who leads the Patacones team.
Navegantes de Caracas is managed by Pasquale Palmisano, son of Giuseppe Palmisano, director of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League and president of the Board of the Navegantes del Magallanes, B.B.C., the most popular franchise of the sport in Venezuela. His influence also extends to other disciplines, like basketball, where he presides over the Professional Basketball Superleague and the Trotamundos de Carabobo team, and football, with the presidency of Carabobo F.C. Palmisano is often seen as a businessman close to chavismo.
Petroleros is a franchise owned by businessman Sebastiano Angione. One of his cooperatives, Yogibru 8081, R.L., was a contractor for the Venezuelan state: first, in 2008, when it supplied prepared food for the Education Zone of Portuguesa state; then, in 2012, when subcontracted by Belarusian company BZS Venezuela, S.A. for the construction of pavement bases, walls, and sanitary installations for apartments of the government’s Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela.
The Monumental League, therefore, gathers a lodger of representatives from the emerging business class linked to Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, whose governments have favored some of them with substantial contracts. Corresponding to those favors seems like the least they can do.
