Jorge Rodríguez is appointed Director of the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Rodriguez is considered the electoral strategist of Chavismo.
As CNE Director and head of the National Electoral Board, Rodriguez, announces a new bidding process to replace the technical service for electoral processes provided by Indra.
Rodriguez argues that the regime, under the CNE, should own the technology, including software codes, used to count ballots. Based on these criteria, a CNE technical committee selects the SBC Consortium led by Smartmatic.
SBC Consortium is comprised of the Smartmatic Corporation (of Boca Raton, Florida), Bitza Corporation (American-Venezuelan company), and CANTV (the Venezuelan state-owned telecommunications company).
Source:
1.https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/04CARACAS922
2.https://efectococuyo.com/politica/directivas-cne
1. Was Jorge Rodriguez one of Venezuelan government members later sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for Venezuelan electoral fraud, illicit wealth, and other crimes?
2. Which other voting system companies participated in the bidding to provide electronic voting services in Venezuela when Rodriguez was the National Electoral Council chief?
3. Was it customary in Venezuela under the Chavez regime to issue no-bid contracts without any quid pro quo?
4. Was Smartmatic hand-picked by the government, without a comparative analysis within transparent and fair bidding and procurement processes, by Venezuela’s electoral laws?
5. If so, what kind of hidden agenda or corruption might have been involved?
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