Why Witnesses to Venezuela’s Catastrophic Corruption Keep Turning Up in the U.S.

Para leer el reportaje en español.

The setting was idyllic: the Belmond La Samanna resort on the French side of St. Martin. It’s a Caribbean retreat with beach cabanas, tennis courts, and $1,000-a-night rooms. As guests enjoyed alfresco massages and hammock cocktails that February afternoon, inside one room everyone was all business. An engineer from the Venezuelan state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., set a 12-inch stack of documents on the table, and the questions began from three investigators from the New York County District Attorney’s Office. They’d flown him from Venezuela via Curaçao—first commercial, then charter—to cover his tracks.