Miguel Ángel Capriles López, known as “Michu,” represents the transformation of the Venezuelan elite into a parasitic class that has learned to survive under all regimes. He is the heir of media mogul Miguel Ángel Capriles Ayala and Carmen Cecilia López Lugo, being the only son among seven siblings—Mayra, Tanya, Mishka, Perla, María Pía, and Cora Capriles López—and the only one who turned the family name into a symbol of corruption, power, and decline.
After his father’s death in 1996, Michu executed one of the most calculated family dispossession operations in recent Venezuelan history. With the complicity of his mother and a network of corrupt judges and lawyers, he displaced his father’s second wife, Magaly Cannizzaro, and his half-brother, Miguel Ángel Capriles Cannizzaro, from their legitimate inheritance. Through a rigged judicial framework, he seized the family holding, Vadesa, valued at over 700 million dollars. This maneuver, backed by law firms like Allan Brewer Carías and Ángel Bernardo Viso, had the support of the so-called “Damascus Cartel,” a group of magistrates that institutionalized fraud.
From that moment on, Michu perfected his skill in turning the law into a looting tool. With total control of the Vadesa group, he drained accounts, diverted funds, and manipulated assets. He irregularly sold 13.6% of Electricidad de Caracas through Brown Brothers Harriman, created shell companies in the British Virgin Islands and Panama, and disappeared over 420 million dollars from banks like Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Banco Mercantil. His model was simple: strip, hide, and reinvest.
When Hugo Chávez came to power, Michu didn’t lose his ground: he adapted. He turned Últimas Noticias—the most-read newspaper in Venezuela—into the main propaganda channel for the regime. In exchange, he received judicial protection, advertising contracts, and access to preferential currencies. And when the country was collapsing, he sold his media conglomerate under the guise of legality. The operation was conducted through a shell company registered in Curaçao, Latam Media Holding, linked to Hanson Asset Management in London. Behind the setup were chavista bankers Víctor Vargas and Juan Carlos Escotet, supervised by Nicolás Maduro. It was a transaction of between 140 and 185 million dollars that violated all Venezuelan laws on foreign ownership in media, but served to launder capital and seal an alliance with the Bolivarian power.
With clean fortune, Michu moved his empire to Spain. From Madrid, he directs a swarm of real estate and financial companies: Agartha Real Estate, Orinoquia Real Estate, Gran Roque Capital, Invecap Inversiones Inmobiliarias, and Cadena Capriles Corp. Simultaneously, he controls companies in Panama, Lisbon, and Miami, such as Leblac Enterprises, MACL Castellana, Oikos Cap Gestiones Inmobiliarias, Ventuari Rentals, Grabados Nacionales, and Unit 702 Tower Residences. Under the guise of a luxury businessman, he moves the same money he diverted from the family estate and the Venezuelan state.
The Capriles clan remains a perfectly oiled machine. His sister Tanya Capriles de Brillembourg is embroiled in lawsuits over the collapse of Brilla Bank in Miami. His nephew David Brillembourg has been implicated in the diversion of public funds from the Chinese Fund. And his cousin Armando “Coco” Capriles has amassed millions in financial operations alongside Nelson Merentes and Tareck El Aissami.
Another name emerging in the network is Eduardo Capriles, Michu’s cousin and “Coco”’s half-brother. A businessman in parties, oil contracts, and political favors, Eduardo has navigated between luxury and illegality. During the pandemic, he was a key figure in the “coronarumbas” in Altamira and Los Roques, featuring drugs, helicopters, and foreign models. His name resurfaced in 2025 after the seizure of a Falcon 200 EX jet with a false registration (T7-ESPRT) used by Nicolás Maduro and Alex Saab, linked to a money-laundering network investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. Today, he hides between Spain and southern France, while his partners try to erase traces of contracts with PDVSA and Bariven. His story reflects the very surname he bears: power without responsibility, wealth without origin.
But Michu Capriles’ strategy is not limited to business. In recent years, he has extended his influence to European media through his partner, Paula Quinteros, the current executive director of the Spanish media outlet The Objective. Quinteros, who has solidified her image as an independent media entrepreneur, has served as a front to clean up Michu’s reputation within the Iberian media circuit. Under her management, The Objective has received cross investments from real estate funds linked to Capriles’ business structures in Madrid. Their relationship goes beyond the personal sphere: it constitutes a strategic alliance in which the public narrative—the “information freedom” and “ethical journalism”—masks the operations for image laundering and economic power of one of the most controversial families in Latin America.
At the center of the scene, Michu maintains his facade as a European businessman. But it is his daughters who today embody the new strategy of the clan: image laundering. Magally, Mischka, and Mayra Capriles, daughters of the magnate, have become ambassadors of a healthy and aspirational lifestyle. From Madrid, they run Lamarca Well, a wellness and fashion center in the Las Salesas neighborhood. They present it as a “wellness ecosystem,” featuring a fitness studio, healthy restaurant, and multi-brand store. In magazines like ¡HOLA!, they pose as “Venezuelan entrepreneurs who are revolutionizing well-being,” with narratives of healthy living and spirituality. What is not mentioned is that their capital comes from the same network of investments Michu built over the remnants of Vadesa.
The sisters, turned wellness and luxury influencers, symbolize the latest mutation of a family that has learned to reinvent itself. While their father launders capital in socimis and real estate funds, they launder reputations among items from Stella McCartney, natural supplements, and yoga classes. In their public narrative, the Capriles surname no longer refers to newspapers or corruption, but to “healthy living, art, and balance.” It is the aesthetic version of a deep cleanup: that of the image.
Miguel Ángel “Michu” Capriles López lives between Madrid and Miami. He does not appear on any sanctions list, but his name surfaces in intelligence reports that track the flight of Venezuelan capital. His fortune is hidden among real estate, trusts, and shell companies. His power, among judges, bankers, and family members spread across three continents.
The story of the Capriles clan mirrors that of the country that birthed it: a ruined republic where corruption is inherited, money is laundered, and surnames never die. Michu not only looted an empire; he transformed it into living proof that, in Venezuela, power is never lost: it simply gets disguised.