On September 5th, somewhere in the southern Caribbean Sea, two F16 fighter jets from the Bolivarian Military Aviation (AMB; previously the Venezuelan Air Force, FAV) flew over the USS Jason Dunham destroyer of the U.S. Navy. This vessel is part of the task force that President Donald Trump ordered to deploy in mid-August to conduct an operation against drug cartels, which he labeled as “terrorists”. However, according to some analysts, this operation might just be a thinly veiled prelude to a military action that could precipitate a regime change in Venezuela.
The Pentagon issued a statement that same day claiming that the Venezuelan aircraft’s flyover aimed to “interfere with our anti-drug operations” and labeled it “highly provocative.” Almost simultaneously, Marshall S. Billingslea, a member of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington D.C., revealed in a post on social media, the presumed identities of the crew members of the two aircraft. Billingslea, who closely monitored Caracas’ illicit activities in the global financial system as Undersecretary for Terrorism Financing in the Treasury Department during Trump’s first term (2017-2021), mentioned the pilots Cruz Alfredo Esteves Silva, aged 44, and Alfredo Tanzella Rangel, aged 55, as the F16 pilots who conducted that surveillance and provocation mission.
From Major General Tanzella Rangel, it can be inferred that the bravado he displayed while challenging the powerful U.S. warship from the heights isn’t merely a result of patriotic zeal or a likely loyalty to the self-proclaimed Bolivarian Revolution. He may also be driven by the desire to protect his lifestyle and prosperity. While patrolling the Caribbean skies, he has concrete interests in a business located in the Europa Business Center in Las Delicias, Maracay, the capital of Aragua State.
In this establishment, which barely stands out from others, most of which are closed, in the U-shaped building in northern Aragua’s capital, lies the office of Aeronautical Services Céu Azul (“blue sky” in Portuguese). The shop, secured by white bars, next to some stairs, is identified with a marquee above its doors. It’s known that the interior is spacious and furnished, though few manage to verify this in person since it stays locked most of the time.
This office also appears in the National Contractors Registry (RNC) as the headquarters of Corporación TLM 94, C.A., a corporation involving 17 active military officers. One of those partners is, notably, Major General Alfredo Tanzella Rangel, the daring aviator who flew over the USS Jason Dunham over a month ago.
Soaring High in the Barracks and the Government
Tanzella Rangel, similar to the other 16 partners, holds 5.88% of the shares in Corporación TLM 94, C.A., which resembles more of a lodge than a typical company. Or perhaps it is a lodge that gave rise to a company.
The list of partners reveals that they are all active aviation officers, graduated in 1994 with the ranking of Lieutenant Colonel Teófilo Luis Méndez, which might explain the initials TLM and the number 94 in the company’s name.
Among the 17 members, four comprise the executive team: Royman Antonio Hernández Briceño, Pedro José Rodríguez Rivera, and Juan Carlos Romero Marín, serving as president, administrator, and general manager, respectively. The fourth executive and vice president is Tanzella Rangel himself.
Being part of the 1994 class isn’t the only characteristic shared by this military-business lodge. Other common traits include that all members have been promoted to positions of trust (even within the High Military Command) by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López since 2014, and many of them have been in charge of managing funds in various branches of the Ministry of Defense or the Military Aviation.
Tanzella Rangel currently serves as the Director of Air Operations at the Operational Strategic Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (Ceofanb). In 2017, he was appointed commander of the Second Command and Chief of General Staff of the Military Aviation Command, also overseeing fund management in the 16th Fighter Air Group. This squadron was established in 1983 and still operates some of the F16s still operational, remnants of a fleet of 24 combat aircraft acquired during the presidency of social Christian Luis Herrera Campins (1979-84). Since its inception, its emblem features a gray dragon with sword drawn.
In 2021, Tanzella Rangel held the same position at Mariscal Sucre Air Base, just outside Maracay.
Major General Royman Antonio Hernández Briceño is the Chief of the Integral Defense Strategic Region (REDI) Los Llanos, one of the eight military regions in the country.
Pedro José Rodríguez Rivera has held significant positions since 2021, having been appointed Director of Logistical Support for the Bolivarian Military Aviation and responsible for fund management for the Military Aviation Command. During 2023, he was the deputy head of the FANB General Command.
General Juan Carlos Romero Marín has directed the state-owned Bolivarian Ports Company (Bolipuertos, a branch not unscathed by corruption cases) and the National Airport and Port Development Foundation (Fundenap).
Since 2016, he has held crucial positions in the Military Aviation Command, including managing funds. His name also appears among the directors of another state company, the Autonomous Service of the Air Force, devoted to training air crews, which has signed contracts for this (139 in total, according to records reviewed) with various government entities.
Major General Ramón Celestino Velásquez Araguayán, while not part of the board of Corporación TLM 94, has occupied the most significant positions in Nicolás Maduro’s government among all partners. Velásquez serves as the Minister of Transport. Since 2018, he has also been the president of the Venezuelan Consortium of Aeronautical Industries and Air Services (Conviasa), the national airline founded in 2004 by Hugo Chávez. Last December, he took over as director of the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía (IAIM).
In Wings We Will Conquer and Seeds We Will Sell
Despite contravening provisions set in Venezuelan laws like the Public Function Statute Law and the Organic Law of the General Comptroller of the Republic and the National Fiscal Control System, the Chavista state continues the routine practice of contracting active military personnel. These individuals, classified as public officials, are bound by the restrictions of those laws and the administrative penalties imposed on violators. However, the license that the military DNA regime has effectively granted them has encouraged open participation in state business.
Such is the case of Corporación TLM 94, C.A., constituted on August 28, 2024, in the First Commercial Registry of Aragua State.
The original business purpose of the company revolves around a transversal axis of aeronautical services, detailed in its founding document as follows: “Marketing and provision of aeronautical, technological, and industrial services such as maintenance and repairs in the aeronautical field, aircraft, major components, painting, propellers, engines, manufacturing, machining, drilling, modification of aeronautical parts, naval, terrestrial, and industrial, structural repairs of all types, maintenance and inspection of all components of an aircraft’s systems.” The services even extend to upkeep of ground support equipment.
This business purpose was later expanded in the registry to include “distribution, commercialization, importation and exportation, buy and sell wholesale or retail of all kinds of goods and products, especially dry goods such as: medicines, cosmetics, medical surgical products, miscellaneous, perfumery, preparation of medical formulas with the necessary legal permits, all kinds of goods, and furniture among others in the field.” Moreover, it also embraces avian, fish, bovine, caprine, porcine, and agricultural business lines. Just like a little bit of everything.
Evidence in the RNC suggests that these ambitions did not remain mere statements, as they became reality. The registration file indicates that Corporación TLM 94 stored and distributed a varied inventory of merchandise until June of this year, ranging from vehicle global positioning systems, maritime hydraulic systems, seeds or garlic seedling plants, rice seeds, concentrated feed for cattle, isolation gowns for medical personnel, to school and work uniforms. The record does not show the buyers of these products but states that stock was fully distributed.
One of the few available pieces of evidence in public records concerning the destination of goods dates back to August 28, 2025, when the Ministry of Health released a press briefing announcing the delivery of 10,000 medical supplies to the Egor Nucete Hospital in San Carlos, Cojedes State, handed over by Major General Royman Hernández Briceño on behalf of REDI Los Llanos. Hernández Briceño is the president of Corporación TLM 94.
A keen observer might recognize in the constitution and methods of Corporación TLM 94 traces of an entity perhaps conceived with the intention of carrying out state imports amidst sanctions imposed by a large part of the international community on the Venezuelan regime. However, this suspicion is weakened by the fact that its Tax Identification Number (RIF) starts with the letter J, which corresponds to a commercial legal person, instead of the letter G, characteristic of government entities.
Meet Your Crew
In December 2023, when American bachata singer Romeo Santos held a massive concert – which was eventful – at the Generalísimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base in La Carlota, southeast of the Caracas valley, the military base’s commander, who had to authorize the event, was – and still is – General Division Francisco Carlos de Jesús Zapata Linares.
Zapata Linares is yet another distinguished partner of Corporación TLM 94. He has been in charge of funds management both at La Carlota base and at the José Antonio Páez General Air Base in Puerto Ayacucho, Amazonas State. Simultaneously, he is on the board of Emiltra, S.A., a government company dedicated to transporting food for the Venezuelan Producer and Distributor of Food (Pdval), which is a subsidiary of the state-owned oil company Pdvsa.
General Division Lino de Jesús Bolívar Blanco was appointed commander of the General Aviation Command in 2007. In 2022, he was responsible for managing funds at the Defense Minister’s office. He is listed as a partner in both Sercoswill, C.A., a private company that provided machinery transport services in 2005, and the cooperative Multimor, R.L., which offered construction services. Both are registered in the RNC.
The list of partners continues with General Division Juan Ricardo Sosa Castro, who was until 2024 the Commander of the Bolivarian Militia for the Integral Defense Strategic Region (REDI) Central and had served as the fund manager for the Second Command and General Staff of the Military Aviation Command in 2009. His corporate career, paralleling his military path, didn’t just start with TLM 94: since 2023, he has been a partner at Petroquímicos Lucas, C.A., based in Cantaura, Anzoátegui State, which appears in the RNC as dedicated to industrial equipment rentals.
General Division Rafael Alberto Díaz Laborda is registered as unemployed in a company in Puerto Ordaz (western part of Ciudad Guayana, Bolívar State), named GG Comatin. Additionally, in the government hierarchy, he was the Director of Education for the Comprehensive Aerospace Defense Command of the Air Force.
General Division Reinaldo José Quintana Díaz was entrusted in 2017 with managing funds for the Military Aviation Command. In 2021, he was appointed commander of the Maritime and Insular Air Defense Brigade. He currently serves as the Director of Technology for the Bolivarian Military Aviation.
A similar background belongs to Edixon Evans Daza Arroyo, a general who has served as head of the Military Aviation Command, coordinator for the Sovereign Supply Command, and responsible for managing funds of the Aviation Command and the Minister’s office. In 2019, he was in command at the José Antonio Páez General Air Base in Puerto Ayacucho.
General of the Military Aviation, Ysaac Bonifacio Ramírez Díaz, another partner in TLM 94, and current director of Military Intelligence of REDI Los Llanos had previously handled funds as a main member of the Foundation for Educational Buildings and Supplies (FEDE).
Currently a General Division, Carlos José Lara Ramos was in 2015 a member of the Venezuelan Corporation of Foreign Trade (Corpovex), a company that used to centralize state imports, noted for the management of another influential aviation general, Giuseppe Yoffreda. In 2017, Lara Ramos was appointed head of the Administrative Management Office of the Minister of Defense and also responsible for fund management in that same office. He served as Deputy Minister of Education for Defense in 2024 and has been Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs at the Bolivarian Military University (UMB) since 2023.
José Francisco López Carrillo, a general, was the commander of the Engineers Corps of the Bolivarian Military Aviation. Meanwhile, Carlos Arturo Romero Padrón was appointed in 2023 by Minister Padrino López to manage funds for the Territorial Militia and Combatants Directorate. A similar situation occurred with General Division Juan Alfredo Castillo González, appointed in 2022 as the fund manager for the Administrative Management Office of the Minister of Defense and director of the Special Security Regime of the Ministry of Defense.
The list of partners of Corporación TLM 94 is rounded out by Brigadier General César Javier Muñoz, appointed in 2020 to manage funds for the Maritime and Insular Air Defense Brigade of the Ministry of Defense. He is also a partner in another commercial enterprise, Inversiones Arcángel Internacional, C.A., which is dedicated to marketing vehicle parts and serves as a supplier to the Venezuelan state.
Taxi in the Blue Sky
As mentioned, the office number 21 of the Europa Business Center that Corporación TLM 94 declares as its headquarters, identifies itself on the premises with a marquee as the office of Aeronautical Services Céu Azul C.A.
The white bars that secure access to the office barely reveal that there are two desks inside. The lights remain off. “They come by sometimes; they’re not always there,” say neighbors from a nearby business, adding that the airline has been operating out of this place for about three years.
Three years ago, in November 2022, Servicios Aéreos Céu Azul posted its first entry on Instagram. At that time, it showcased their receipt of the corresponding Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) from the National Institute of Civil Aviation (INAC).
On October 11, 2022, INAC had issued the operational permit to the anonymous company Servicios Aéreos Céu Azul to provide air taxi services nationally and internationally. The Mariscal Sucre Air Base of Maracay was established as the base of their operations according to the administrative decree visible in the Official Gazette dated October 20 of the same year.
Simultaneously, INAC issued, with a five-year validity, the Air Transportation Service Operator Certificate (AOC) to the twin-engine Cessna 500 with registration YV3029, which Céu Azul utilizes for its operations. INAC is an entity affiliated with the Ministry of Transportation, whose head during those days was conveniently Major General Ramón Celestino Velásquez Araguayán, a partner at Corporación TLM 94.
A photo uploaded on Instagram from May 2023 displays the aircraft on the runway of Santa Elena de Uairén airport, capital of the Gran Sabana municipality, serving not only that Venezuelan town and neighboring Pacaraima, capital of Roraima municipality in Brazil, but also the communities in that border region of Guayana Venezuela, which is highly active in artisanal and illegal gold mining.
Juvenal José Lugo Molina is one of the two owners of the company, registered in December 2019 in Maracay with a capital of 1 billion bolivars, equivalent to 116,590 dollars at the official exchange rate of that date. A pilot, Lugo Molina is also an active officer in the air force, graduated in the February 4, 1992 promotion of the Bolivarian Military Aviation Academy. According to the only record that Armando.info found in public databases, Lugo Molina was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant of aviation in July 2007 when General Raúl Isaías Baduel, now deceased, was the Defense Minister.
Despite his enlistment in a military body, Lugo Molina has a business history that spans beyond Servicios Aéreos Céu Azul. He is also recognized as the main shareholder of J.L. Service Xpress, C.A., a company registered in Caracas in 2015, which has served as a state contractor. The company, whose name appears to correspond to its owner’s initials, has provided services to the state-owned National Telecommunications Company of Venezuela (Cantv) and CVG Internacional, as indicated in its RNC file.
Armando.info made interview requests to the emails of Corporación TLM 94, Servicios Aéreos Céu Azul, and J.L. Service Xpress, but, by the date of this publication, had not received a response. In one of the contact numbers for Corporación TLM 94, after the reporter from Armando.info identified herself through a text message, the answer was a terse reply: “I’m sorry to inform you that I can’t help you.”
Thus, the coincidence of Corporación TLM 94 and Servicios Aéreos Céu Azul sharing an office in Maracay represents a tangible outcome of the parable of a group of officers – both major generals and generals – who collectively possess the qualifications and merits to form a top command of the Military Aviation, yet conspired instead to create a business.
As pedestrian as it may seem, this mission could require a daring equivalent to that which Major General Tanzella Rangel mustered to tell an enemy ship from the sky, “get this straw off my shoulder.”
Both actions echoed the motto of the alma mater of all of them, the Bolivarian Military Aviation Academy: “Audaces fortuna juvat” (in English, “Fortune favors the bold,” a quote in Latin from Virgil’s Aeneid). And indeed, fortune is accompanying them; at least, for now.
This report included contributions from Valentina Lares.
