Smartmatic, Part 1: Venezuela – Election Fraud, Murders, the Carter Center, and the Open Society Foundation
Uncovering previously unknown details of this famous story
April 28, 2008. A private aircraft departs from Maiquetía International Airport in Venezuela. On board is Alfredo José Anzola, co-founder and chief financial officer of the company Smartmatic. His flight to Curaçao is not routine - Anzola intends to share with the U.S. government a rather intriguing story of election fraud in Venezuela, disclosing in the United States certain documents related to illegal activities by Smartmatic.
Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft crashed into a building near the airport. Anzola died immediately upon arrival at the hospital. The investigation into the incident was quickly closed.
The Beginning of Hugo Chávez’s Political Career
The end of 1998 marked a period of anticipation for major changes in Venezuela. The presidential term of 82-year-old Rafael Caldera was coming to an end - a period characterized by high levels of poverty, low living standards, and widespread corruption.
The country needed systemic change in its domestic politics, and such change occurred - in 1999 Hugo Chávez became Venezuela’s leader for the next fourteen years.
Chávez showed himself in opposition to the existing political system well before the presidential elections. Driven by a desire to bring about change in the lives of Venezuelan citizens, the young, charismatic military officer quickly gained popularity among his compatriots. In 1992, Chávez and his supporters within the military launched a coup attempt, justifying it as a struggle against poverty and the neoliberal policies of President Pérez. The coup failed, and its leader was imprisoned, but it significantly elevated the revolutionary stature of the military figure in the eyes of the public - among citizens, Chávez became the man who could lead the country and pull it out of its dire condition.
In 1994, Caldera, who had succeeded Pérez as president, granted Chávez a pardon, after which the latter immediately launched his electoral campaign.
Skillfully exploiting the population’s suffering caused by economic hardship, widespread corruption, and social inequality, the former revolutionary set a course toward democracy and decentralization of power, thereby attracting a growing number of supporters. The 1998 elections in Venezuela became his triumph - Chávez had finally come to power.
However, in 2002, an attempt was made to overthrow him.
The root of Chávez’s problems lay in the domestic policies he pursued. Opposition unrest was triggered by the adoption of the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution, drafted by presidential loyalists, and perceived threats to Venezuelan democracy - particularly the abolition of the upper house of parliament, which critics viewed as Chávez’s attempt to impose authoritarian rule. The climax came with the 2002 military coup attempt, which initially appeared successful - Chávez agreed to resign and go into exile on Cuba at the recommendation of Fidel Castro. The interim president of Venezuela, Pedro Carmona, held office for 36 hours - mass protests forced him to resign, and Chávez was reinstated in power. Subsequently, the Venezuelan opposition capitalized on the resulting constitutional and political crisis to push for a referendum on the impeachment of the president.
It was precisely at this moment that the mysterious story of the previously little-known company Smartmatic began.
The Rise of Smartmatic
Antonio Mugica and Alfredo José Anzola met in elementary school. The young men became close friends - so close that Anzola later referred to Mugica as “more than a brother” and was the only person Mugica fully trusted. Beyond their personal bond, they shared an interest in new technologies. Both had received engineering degree from university, and in 1997, together with Roger Piñate, while working at Panagroup Corp., they began contemplating starting their own business.
In 2000, they created a company named Smartmatic and registered it in Delaware with an office in Boca Raton, Florida. Initially Smartmatic specialized in banking security and other commercial projects.
Mugica and Anzola were genuine enthusiasts - they believed they could change the world. Even in the early 2000s, they considered it essential to integrate into everyday life systems that are now used everywhere - smart cameras, access control, etc. The difference was that Mugica and Anzola envisioned these as a single, interconnected system that could be remotely managed, which according to their vision would ensure not only banking security but also be applicable in other areas. Today this is called artificial intelligence; at the time, it was seen as innovation.
In 2000 Microsoft recognized their achievements by including Smartmatic in its top five packaged application partners of the year, citing “outstanding solutions.” Smartmatic became the only company in Latin America to receive such an award. This marked the first major success for Mugica and Anzola, signaling great potential for their venture.
Their technological solutions gradually integrated into banks, particularly in Mexico, and Smartmatic’s future appeared bright. The steady progress, combined with the initiative of the young entrepreneurs, could have brought Smartmatic widespread recognition.
However, soon a highly profitable opportunity emerged on the horizon, transforming their gradual ascent into a rapid rise and fundamentally altering the company’s direction - by 2004, Anzola, Mugica and Piñate had taken part in their first major electoral project: 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum. From that moment on, Smartmatic became the leading manufacturer of electronic voting machines in Venezuela.
Smartmachinatic
The shift of Smartmatic from banking security to electronic voting systems can be described by a quote attributed to Elon Musk:
Offer me money. Offer me power. I don’t care.
First, Venezuela needed to modernize its voting equipment, which led to a public tender in 2003 for the development of electronic voting machines. Prior to 2004, the equipment used in local elections was supplied by the Spanish company Indra Sistemas, which by that time was already considered outdated.
Second, Smartmatic had a strong interest in working with the Chávez government, as the financial rewards for such involvement were enormous. It turned out the interest was mutual.
To participate in the tender, Mugica and Anzola formed a consortium called SBC, comprising Smartmatic, Bizta Corporation (a Smartmatic subsidiary responsible for operations in Venezuela), and CANTV, Venezuela’s largest telecommunications operator. The foundation was laid - only the negotiation with the government remained. This is where Jack Blaine, a former U.S. Navy officer who joined Smartmatic as president, proved instrumental.
With over thirty years of experience in positions at Ford Motor Company and Unisys, Blaine brought valuable expertise and connections. He quickly integrated into the company and actively supported Mugica and Anzola in advancing their plans.
The SBC consortium was in a clearly advantageous position - in 2003, Bizta, which was part of the consortium, sold 28% of its shares to the state-owned Forcrei, and appointed a representative from Forcrei to its board of directors. Notably, in 2004, the Miami Herald described Bizta as “a struggling Venezuelan software company with barely a sales deal to its name.” And then - suddenly - the government stepped in to help!
Later it would become known that Bizta had ties to the government, a major scandal would emerge involving possible attempts by the government to influence elections, and the company would eventually repurchase its shares back.
But that was not all. In their pursuit of maximizing profits, Anzola and Mugica reached out to Morris Loyó, a retired Venezuelan Air Force officer and close associate of Hugo Chávez. According to information available to us, Loyó received significant amount of money from Smartmatic, despite not being an employee or consultant of the company. Later, during an investigation into Smartmatic’s activities, Loyó was presented as a “as a lobbyist/salesperson and independent contractor to assist in securing election contracts in Venezuela,” and even a contract was shown, under which he allegedly received only $1.5 million.
Other accounting records regarding payments were deleted from Smartmatic’s database. However, the audit function of the accounting system was designed to ensure that any deletion of information was logged and preserved. According to these records, Loyó received a total of over $6 million for lobbying on behalf of Smartmatic. The payments to Loyó were supervised directly by Blaine and Mugica.
Smartmatic made a very substantial bribe to Loyó in exchange for representing its interests within the government. As a result - winning the tender and securing approximately $128 million in funding. The expenses were fully recouped, and the contract was now in the hands of the once-honest young entrepreneurs.
All that remained was to agree on what Mugica and Anzola would provide in return. The price turned out to be very simple - Chávez’s victory in the referendum. And Smartmatic could ensure it - by simply abandoning their principles and eliminating the concept of “free choice.”
2004 referendum
Note: CIAgate does not aim to challenge the results of the 2004 referendum. We talk about suspicious facts that have come to our team’s attention - these indicate that serious violations of the electoral process occurred, which may have influenced (or did influence) the outcome of the election.
According to information from our source, who directly monitored both the preparation for and the conduct of the 2004 referendum, Mugica and Anzola subsequently made significant advances in their relationship with the corrupt Venezuelan government. The US government, unsurprisingly, was informed of this beforehand, but chose a strategy of observation and non-intervention rather than taking real action to prevent violations of the electoral process. The SBC consortium was given a free hand.
August 15, 2004, all was ready for the referendum. Preliminary forecasts and results of sociological surveys did not provide a clear picture of the expected outcome. A curious detail - for Chávez’s resignation to take effect, in addition to a majority vote in favor, another condition had to be met: the number of votes cast for his impeachment had to exceed the number of his supporters in the previous presidential election of 2000 - 3.76 million people. Remember this moment.
Voting was conducted using lottery machines developed by the Italian company Olivetti. The SBC consortium purchased these machines and installed their own software. Importantly, in private conversations, Mugica stated that the machines had no physical ability to receive information from outside sources, thereby demonstrating their security and the impossibility of external interference.
According to information available to us, the machines were connected to the internet throughout the entire day of voting, and despite this, they were still capable of receiving external traffic. Mugica later confirmed in private conversations that he had lied about the machines’ security, while still insisting that breaching the machines would have required more than a single day.
Smartmatic had the ability to monitor election results in real time and modify them at will. Information about fraudulent activities during the elections began leaking into the media, and the opposition reported numerous violations at polling stations. The problem was that no one even suspected the true scale of these irregularities.
The referendum results served as confirmation. 40.75% - 3.9 million people - voted in favor of Chávez’s resignation (more than the number of votes he received in his 1999 election victory). Against resignation - 5.8 million (59.25%)!
In the context of the country’s political situation, a lead of two million votes was enormous, especially considering that the total number of registered voters in Venezuela, according to electoral authorities, was only 14 million. According to information available to us, Smartmatic’s leadership was informed in advance that the electoral registry would be inflated by three million voters through the issuance of over three million IDs to undocumented migrants. This meant Chávez and Smartmatic had executed a masterful scheme, seizing personal control over the elections with the ability to fully manipulate the outcome.
The referendum results were officially recognized as valid and took effect. Chávez remained in power.
The Role of the Carter Center
The oversight of the referendum’s conduct was entrusted to the Carter Center, whose delegation in Venezuela was led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter himself.
The Carter Center conducted an audit of the election results - ultimately, the organization’s role amounted to merely confirming the reported vote outcomes, while turning a blind eye to the violations in the electoral process. For instance, in the conclusions of the Carter Center’s election audit report, it was stated that “the results transmitted by the voting machines have been fully validated by the results obtained during the manual recount of the voting receipts.”
The report also gave special attention to the absence of representatives from the Coordinadora Democrática, one of the key initiators of the referendum and a major organizer of the process. This omission may seem surprising, but, as we have learned, Carter was prepared to validate the election results regardless of the outcome - as long as no mass protests erupted. Therefore, the presence or absence of opposition representatives at the audit had no significance. Moreover, the former US president was aware of the electoral irregularities previously mentioned - such as the expansion of the electoral registry, the continuous internet connection of voting machines throughout the voting day, and others.
The audit process was significantly simplified because representatives of the European Union were completely excluded from observing the referendum due to heavy bureaucratic obstacles imposed by the Venezuelan government - a fact of which Jimmy Carter was fully aware. As a result, the entire responsibility for the international community’s recognition of the election results fell solely on Carter, who maintained very close personal relations with Hugo Chávez, despite later describing his policies as “contradictory” after the death of Venezuela’s former president. In private conversations, Carter said:
“I just saved your country from civil war.”
Regardless of whether civil war would have erupted or not, another individual compromised the principles he was supposed to uphold - and which form the very purpose of his Center: “promoting democracy and protecting human rights.” Carter proved to be a democrat only in words, abandoning his convictions when required.
But why did this happen? Who within the international community had an interest in keeping Chávez in power? Who was lobbying on behalf of Smartmatic?
Open Society Foundation and Mark Malloch Brown
Rephrasing a famous meme: “Why is it, when something happens, it is always you two?”
Yes, George Soros is again influencing political processes - and once again, doing so through other people’s hands.
Meet Mark Malloch Brown: an extremely influential and dangerous individual.
Former British politician, life peer in the House of Lords, economist, and entrepreneur;
holds extensive experience within UN, served as Deputy Secretary-General of the organization;
served as chairman of the board of directors of SGO Corporation Limited (the owner of Smartmatic) from 2014 to 2020;
close friend of George Soros. From 2021 to 2024, he was president of the Open Society Foundation.
To understand Mark Malloch Brown’s interest in Venezuela and Smartmatic, his role must be examined in the context of his prior activities. Strangely enough, it all began with the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.
Malloch Brown played a central role in the corruption schemes of the Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP), where he acted as a key architect of various processes, their protection, and the subsequent concealment of violations.
Background: The OIP, launched by the United Nations in 1995 and discontinued at the end of 2003, allowed Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other essential supplies needed by ordinary Iraqi citizens.
Control over the financial flows of the OIP was managed by UN bodies and their intermediaries in such a way that all processes effectively bypassed direct oversight by the US.
As the chief defender of the program, Malloch Brown systematically downplayed the scale of abuses and actively obstructed independent investigations. His actions included systematically blocking access to internal UN audits, pressuring counterparties to approve the release of information, and creating administrative barriers for auditors.
Malloch Brown also oversaw the information strategy aimed at discrediting critics of the program within American media and political circles.
Under his leadership, a system was established that enabled Saddam Hussein to receive billions of dollars through artificially low oil prices and inflated costs for humanitarian supplies. He ensured the functioning of a corrupt network in which the Iraqi regime, international corporations, and global elites mutually enriched themselves, while the ordinary population of Iraq continued to suffer under sanctions. His position allowed the appearance of legitimacy to be maintained, while in reality the program had become a tool for financing a dictatorship and enriching the global elite.
The removal of Saddam Hussein in 2003 led to a OIP shutdown. Malloch Brown, along with the global elite, lost their instruments of influence and financial channels.
After that globalists represented by Malloch Brown began searching for a new “cash cow.” The situation in Venezuela looked ideal - given its political dynamics and vast oil resources. In this context, the legitimization of Hugo Chávez through a “transparent” referendum using Smartmatic was a proactive move by globalists to prevent Venezuela’s opposition from removing the president from power.
Malloch Brown and his associates used the technical capabilities of the Smartmatic, along with observers such as the Carter Center and UN structures, to create a controlled form of legitimacy for Hugo Chávez’s regime. Their goal was not to remove Chávez, but to integrate him into a system that would allow the extraction of benefits from the country’s oil revenues.
Mark Malloch Brown, possessing unique connections and leverage, served as the key architect of this process. It was a great plan - Chávez’s anti-Western rhetoric was combined with economic schemes that enriched both the local ruling elite and international circles interested in access to resources and shadow financial flows.
Smartmatic could have served as a tool for ensuring managed democracy - formally transparent elections, in practice guaranteeing the preservation of the desired regime. This created the appearance of legitimacy while maintaining political stability essential for long-term economic interests.
Yet not everyone within Smartmatic managed to silence their conscience. However, the price for seeking to expose the painful truth was far too high.
The Death of Alfredo Anzola
Antonio Mugica and Alfredo Anzola obtained everything they had strived for - contracts, influence, connections with the Venezuelan regime and European global elites. All it took was to compromise their conscience, and afterward, as often happens, the machine could not be stopped.
Mugica’s process of recognizing his own importance unfolded quite simply - after the Venezuelan referendum, Smartmatic became a global player, subsequently expanding its operations worldwide, including the US (this will be discussed in Smartmatic, Part 2). Anzola, however, was not certain of the righteousness of his actions. Later, he came to realize that interfering in electoral processes would only harm the international community by undermining the core principles of elections - honesty and transparency.
According to information available to us, in private conversations Anzola repeatedly admitted his guilt regarding the violations described above - both election fraud and bribery of thirteen government officials through offshore accounts at a bank in Barbados.
As Smartmatic’s chief financial officer, Anzola was responsible for managing the company’s bank accounts, and according to our source, he deeply regretted his actions. He clearly feared accountability for his crimes.
The 2007 Venezuelan referendum on constitutional amendments - designed to bring Chávez’s regime even closer to authoritarian - proved to be the final straw. Media reports indicated that fraud occurred during this referendum as well, although the outcome differed from previous ones - the proposal to reject the amendments narrowly won (and the percentage of votes against the amendments may have been significantly underreported).
In early 2008, Anzola saw no alternative but to disclose Smartmatic’s actions at the company’s shareholders’ meeting, and then to the U.S. government.
On April 28, 2008, Alfredo Anzola departed on a private Piper Navajo aircraft to Curaçao. His attorney, Eduardo Ramírez Mendoza, was also on board. Minutes later - the plane crashed near Maiquetía Airport.
Do you believe in coincidences? If so, we assure you: this event is certainly not a chain of tragic accidents.
First, the aircraft was piloted by a man who had no legal right to fly it. Mario José Donadi had served an eight-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, was on parole with a travel ban, and his pilot’s license had been suspended. The question is - who allowed him to fly?
Second, according to previously published information, representatives of the Venezuelan government arrived at the hospital at the exact moment when Anzola was brought in - about one hour after the plane crash. First question - how did they learn so quickly about the crash of Anzola’s flight? Second - how did they know which hospital he would be taken to? Third - how did they reach the hospital so quickly? These questions remain unanswered.
Even if this seems to you like a chain of coincidences, here is the decisive fact - according to information from our source close to the Venezuelan government, the fuel lines on Anzola’s private aircraft were cut. This was not a technical malfunction, as claimed by the investigation - this was a deliberate, premeditated murder.
Responsibility for orchestrating the disaster lies with specific individuals within the Venezuelan government. And it was precisely his closest friend - “more than a brother” - Antonio Mugica who betrayed Anzola.
In close coordination with the Chávez government and structures linked to George Soros, Mugica understood that Anzola’s intentions posed a serious threat to the organization, could disrupt financial flows, and potentially shut down Smartmatic’s operations. In this situation, loyalty no longer mattered - only survival. The outcome is already known to you.
Anzola paid a heavy price - for his actions and for his desire to repent. We do not consider him a martyr, but rather a man who had the chance to stop the corrupt machine, yet was ultimately stopped himself.
And unsurprisingly, the investigation classified the crash as an accident. Information about the severed fuel lines remained undisclosed until today.
Now you know the truth.
Do you think the U.S. intelligence agencies were aware of the real causes behind the crash? Try to answer this question yourself. Why was the information never made public? Who benefited from keeping it hidden?
These questions will be addressed in Smartmatic, Part 2. Additionally, we will reveal the financial flows within Smartmatic, the voting machines used to influence elections in other countries -including the United States - and the subsequent fates of the individuals featured in our investigation.
Our team is extremely grateful to you for staying with us. You are our motivation to shed light on events that previously remained unknown. We look forward to meet you in 2026!
Stay tuned.
Thank you for looking at this "now famous story" more critically with providing us with the additional research items included. I am working on an article for my website that recalls my experience in meeting one of the ex-FBI agents directly involved in the immediate response effort made by that agency chasing a hired professional sharpshooter to Mexico City. His team of three FBI agents kept close watch on the man who was holed up at a hotel there while they urgently appealed to John Dulles' State Department for extradition permission--and never heard back before the man left three daus later. I'm at woldrob@yahoo.com however the article will appear soon within my website: www.lightningonthemoon.com. I will let you know when the article is posted. Once again, my thanks for this update series on Smartmatic and its ties to voter corruption.
Excellent reporting-- I subscribed and restacked.
One point: I do not see how cut fuel lines would work - more info needed. Completely cut lines wouldn't even make it to the runway. Perhaps they could be arranged to fail under full power only? I don't doubt that there are difficult-to-detect methods of sabotaging small planes with reliably fatal results, there are too many convenient crashes compared to the general accident rate.
In light of Maduro's capture today, part 2 of this article is currently highly newsworthy, hope to see it soon.