Claudia Patricia Díaz Guillén at the extradition hearing in Spain in 2018. Luca Piergiovanni
Claudia Díaz Guillén, former national treasurer of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez’s associate and personal nurse, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the United States. The verdict also affects her husband, Captain Adrián Velásquez, who was chief of presidential security. Both are accused of money laundering, bribery and corruption.
This verdict ends a long court case that began in 2018 when the couple was located and arrested in Madrid at the request of the Venezuelan government. The current president, Nicolás Maduro, deposed Díaz y Velásquez in 2013 as soon as he assumed full power at the Miraflores Palace. The couple left Venezuela in 2015 amid allegations of political persecution at the hands of the new government apparatus that consolidated power after Chávez’s death. The Venezuelan government’s extradition request was initially unsuccessful because the national court refused to authorize the extradition of a defendant to a country that “does not respect human rights”. However, Spain decided to respond to a later request from the United States judiciary.
Díaz Guillén, a non-commissioned officer in the armed forces and a member of the Presidential Honor Guard, studied both nursing and law while he was part of Chávez’s team of personal assistants, which he joined in 2003. When the former husband was diagnosed with cancer, she was appointed head of the National Treasury and Secretary of the National Development Fund (Fonden), two highly coveted positions in which she managed vast sums of money when Venezuela was still experiencing years of oil bonanza.
US prosecutors have accused Díaz and Velásquez of receiving bribes of up to $65 million from businessman Raúl Gorrín, owner of the Globovisión channel, who was ordered by US courts to conduct exchange transactions from whom advantages were withdrawn with the exchange rate difference within the framework of the strict exchange controls in force at the time. They are also accused of multiple money laundering operations in Panama, and other investigations also credit the purchase of 250 gold bars worth more than $9.5 million through a shell company based in tax havens.
The defense of Díaz and Velásquez, who deny the charges and plead not guilty, have announced they will appeal the verdict. The prosecution had asked for 23 years in prison for Díaz Guillén, although the court finally left it at 15 years.
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