Local Committees for Supply and Production

According to the Vice President of Venezuela, Aristóbulo Istúriz, the government-operated Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP) that provides food to Venezuelans in need, are a "political instrument to defend the revolution.[citation needed] Among the most notable cases are the seizure of 30 tons of CLAP food and drugs that an organized group had diverted for resale in Vargas,[citation needed] According to Felipe Pérez Martí, a government minister during the first government of Hugo Chávez, the military is left with 80% of the CLAP's imports,[14] who received full control to manage the distribution of food in Venezuela in July 2016 through the Gran Mision Soberano y Seguro program.CLAP made contracts with Group Grand Limited, a Mexican entity owned by Maduro through frontmen Rodolfo Reyes, Álvaro Uguedo Vargas and Alex Saab.[24] The Maduro government responded to Richard Branson's Venezuela Aid Live by holding its own rival concert[25][26][27] on the Venezuelan side of the border with Colombia,[26] at the Simón Bolívar International Bridge on 22 and 23 February.[28] Information Minister Jorge Rodríguez said the government would distribute 20,000 boxes of subsidized food from the Local Committees for Supply and Production (CLAP) to the poor residents of Cúcuta in Colombia,[30] and that free medical attention would be given to Colombians and Venezuelans.[37][38][39][40][41] Colombian businessman Alex Saab has sold food to Venezuela for more than 200 million USD in a negotiation signed by President Nicolás Maduro through a registered company in Hong Kong, China.[42] On 23 August 2017, the Venezuelan attorney general, Luisa Ortega Díaz, named Alex Saab as the owner of the Mexican firm Group Grand Limited, 26 along with Colombian businessmen Álvaro Pulido and Rofolfo Reyes, "presumably President Nicolás Maduro" and dedicated to selling food to the CLAP.One report on Mexican exploitation by overpricing CLAP boxes sold to the Venezuelan government even as it was filling them with expired food products won the website the ICFJ Knight Prize.[60] On 18 July 2019, Mexico's Ministry of Finance froze bank accounts of 19 companies related to the sale of low quality and over-priced food to the Venezuelan government's CLAP program, which were aimed at the poorest population.According to a statement by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, “The corruption network that operates the CLAP program has allowed Maduro and his family members to steal from the Venezuelan people."[65] On 17 September 2019, the United States Department of Treasury expanded sanctions on 16 entities (from Colombia, Italy and Panama) and 3 individuals, accusing them of enabling President Nicolás Maduro and his illegitimate regime to corruptly profit from imports of food aid and distribution in Venezuela.