Business Reporter
Chronic underfunding, mismanagement and irregularities took a toll on operations, working conditions and employees across the Cisneros family’s businesses, a former senior executive who acted on behalf of Mireya Blavia de Cisneros alleged. The account comes as Venezuelan authorities scrutinise her empire, including the telecommunications operator Digitel and her real-estate interests, over alleged failures to meet investment commitments and allegations of corruption and bribery.
According to the former executive, there was no investment in infrastructure development and not even basic due diligence, leaving operations looking orphaned. The family and senior executives treated major interests as a “cash cow,” the executive said, and alarm bells raised over nearly 10 years were ignored until the complete lack of investment forced the government to take notice.
That government attention is now growing, authoritative Venezuelan sources say. The empire overseen by Mireya Blavia de Cisneros, widow of tycoon Oswaldo Cisneros, spans Digitel, Venezuela’s leading telecommunications operator, as well as real estate, oil and other sectors. Scrutiny extends to personal and corporate tax liabilities, investment commitments unmet for more than a decade, and sham adoptions allegedly designed to alter control of the family trust and deprive rightful heirs of their share.
A senior official described a pattern across the family’s interests, alleging investment never materialised in any sector and that the family treated major businesses as sources of cash, enriching themselves and looting the economy. Officials allege bribes were used to bend regulatory and government systems, and that her arrangements benefited from her close association with Nicolás Maduro, who ruled from 2013 until US forces captured him in Caracas in January 2026 on narco-terrorism and cocaine-trafficking conspiracy charges.
At Digitel, which Oswaldo Cisneros built into one of the country’s principal mobile operators before his widow took a leading role after his death, officials cite questions over investment, commitments, taxes and management. One official called the lack of investment a scandal, alleging the family “only looted and plundered without investing anything, while making wild excuses.”
In oil, according to Bloomberg, the Petroleum Ministry recently revoked DP Delta’s minority participation, alleging unmet investment and production commitments and huge profits made through political bribes to Maduro and his associates. Authorities allege the family was to provide over $1 billion under the 2016 contract but provided nothing, and that output meant to roughly triple to 115,000 barrels per day was around 9,000 in July 2026. Cisneros had appeared beside Maduro promoting the DP Delta Finance arrangement, due to run until early 2027. A senior Venezuelan government official alleged a corrupt scheme run through bribes, claimed clear evidence of her ties to narco and cocaine-trafficking gangs, and said law enforcement was examining her funding of elements still loyal to Maduro. Another official, speaking anonymously, alleged she personally managed the corrupt relationship and funded Maduro’s establishment.
A further official alleged she was seriously in default on tax obligations. SENIAT valued the estate at over $10 billion, with the state’s 30 per cent share exceeding $3 billion, and there is no record of payment, the official alleged, adding that fake adoptions were used to seize majority voting control of the trust. Supreme Court records show she and the heirs became involved in proceedings over the estate, and a senior official said investigators had identified bribes and gifts linked to telecoms and real-estate contracts.
A legal source for the widow acknowledged serious mismanagement, lack of investment and unmet commitments to the government, blaming them partly on US sanctions on Venezuela’s financial system, and said she would fully cooperate with the authorities.
