Caracas Chronicles

Rafael Alfredo Sarría Díaz, a businessman under U.S. Treasury sanctions for acting as a frontman for top Maduro regime officials, has become the power player behind FM Center, one of the country’s largest radio circuits. Sources point out that after January 2025, when the president of FM Center died, Sarría asserted control over the group’s editorial line. He has established a regime of censorship and fear among employees since then.

According to people linked to the circuit, tensions between the Rodríguez owners and Sarría were already noticeable by mid-2024, while Rodolfo Rodríguez Miranda was still alive. Disagreements could be heard and felt beyond the walls of the presidential offices.

Nearly a year later—specifically on May 2, 2025—Sarría’s moves left no room for doubt. Nicolás Maduro Guerra, son of the head of state, was received that day at FM Center as if he were a global star, as seen in videos shared on social media. “Nicolasito” shook the hands of employees and was interviewed on one of the station’s flagship programs. In total, between April 29 and May 22, he was featured in three different shows. It was part of his campaign for a seat in the National Assembly.

As expected in elections with no real competition for the ruling party, Maduro Guerras was elected as a lawmaker on May 25, 2025. But the moment that broke from the script happened around his visit to the circuit. The videos showing the candidate’s tour through the hallways of FM Center revealed, for the first time, the real face of Rafael Sarría. News coverage mentioning the businessman since 2018 had been illustrated with the image of a different man whose name was also Rafael Sarría. 

FM Center was born in the 1990s with the vision of building the country’s widest private radio network. Founded by Rodolfo Rodríguez García and run with his children Rodolfo, Martha, Marcia and Marlene Rodríguez Miranda—the latter married to singer Ricardo Montaner—the group expanded to over 60 stations across Venezuela, organized into subcircuits such as La Romántica, Fiesta, Candela Pura and Hot 94.1.

Martha Rodríguez Miranda, a journalist and founding partner, explained that her brother Rodolfo sold 30% of the company’s shares to Sarría in 2012, as part of a family strategy to secure a license renewal before Conatel, a broadcast regulator under chavista control.

Sources within FM Center claim Diosdado Cabello is referred to by the code “Delta Charlie,” and his opinion dictates the editorial line.

“Sarría assured us he would not get involved in the circuit’s editorial matters because he was living in Spain. He kept that promise until very recently,” she said, responding briefly to our questions.

Conatel is the state body that manages Venezuela’s radio spectrum and regulates telecommunications companies. It is responsible for shutting down 233 radio stations since 2003, the closure of RCTV, and the blocking of 80 digital media outlets in the country. For that reason, it was essential for circuit owners to have someone who could help them get the license. But 12 years after that stake was sold, the decision turned against the Rodríguez Miranda family.

Cadet, partner, censor

A wave of layoffs has hit FM Center since mid-2024. It has affected more than 20 workers, including the likes of journalist Isnardo Bravo, radio host Caterina Valentino, and administrative and technical staff. After Rodríguez Miranda died nine months ago, Sarría took advantage of the power vacuum to assert control over the heirs, according to internal sources. Backed by Conatel, he acts as if he were the absolute owner.

Workers describe the environment as a “regime of surveillance and terror.” According to these sources, the new presidential secretary comes from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM). Inside the circuit, Sarría’s influence is tied to his friendship with Diosdado Cabello, now arguably Venezuela’s most powerful man. They claim he is referred to by the code “Delta Charlie,” and his opinion dictates the editorial line.

The Cabello-Sarría relationship began on August 21, 1981, when both began their training at the Venezuelan Military Academy along with 540 other young men. It is the same institution where Hugo Chávez taught and recruited his earliest political allies.

Cabello had grown up in a low-income household in El Furrial, Monagas state. Sarría, by contrast, belonged to a middle-class family living in Caracas. But camaraderie among aspiring officers helped build their friendship.

Among the 540 cadets were others who would later participate in the coup attempts of February and November 1992, the presidential campaign of Hugo Chávez, and in his administration after taking power in 1999. Those include former ministers Jesse Chacón and Carlos Rotondaro, and José Gregorio Vielma Mora, former head of fiscal body SENIAT and governor of Táchira between 2013 and 2018.

As Cabello grew more powerful between 2000 and 2025, records show that Sarría Díaz created 22 companies in Venezuela, the U.S., the Virgin Islands and France.

Sarría withdrew two years into the Army program. He returned to civilian life, trying to find work and start business ventures, while former classmates like Cabello graduated as second lieutenants in 1987. Of the 540 cadets who started, only 216 were part of that General de Brigada Tomás Montilla class.

Some of those officers participated in the 1992 coups before playing a role in the spectacular rise of Chávez. In 1998, when Chávez was campaigning on the road, Sarría joined the candidate’s security team. Cabello was in charge of coordinating it. That early-stage businessman, then entering the insurance sector, was not just helping to protect Chávez. Sarría was spending his own money to fund the candidacy. And through his contacts, he helped provide air transport for the future president. Sarría did it by using planes owned by friends or acquaintances

“Sarría was betting on the winner so he could claim dividends later, always in partnership with Cabello,” a former colleague in the military recalls.

As Cabello rose to power, Sarría expanded his businesses. International records show that between 2000 and 2025, he created 22 companies in Venezuela, the United States, the Virgin Islands and France. In Caracas, he bought a mansion in Valle Arriba decorated with Jesús Soto artworks. Properties worth millions in New York and Boca Raton. In Madrid, a luxury home in the high class La Moraleja neighborhood equipped with 150 cameras and microphones.

Rafael Sarría was approached for this report. Two emails requesting an interview were sent more than a week ago. A response never came.

Finding the faceless Sarría

Sarría managed to keep his face hidden for years. Images of the actual businessman were nowhere to be found across media and open sources. On May 18, 2018, when OFAC announced sanctions against Diosdado Cabello, Marleny Contreras, José David Cabello and Rafael Alfredo Sarría Díaz, outlet A Todo Momento published a profile of Sarría titled: “Rafael Sarría Díaz, the man linked to Diosdado Cabello.” Now, that can now only be read through archive.org. It originally featured a photo of who they believed was Rafael Alfredo Sarría Díaz.

This is known because another outlet, Venezuela al Día, published a piece titled:  “Who is Rafael Sarría, the man linked to Diosdado Cabello’s schemes?” At the end, it says it was taken from A Todo Momento. The photo used shows a man over 60, white, bald, clean-shaven, slim, wearing a jacket and tie, standing with a bridge behind him.

Research for this report confirms that the man in that photo is named Rafael Sarría, but he is not the one running FM Center. He is a namesake, a Basque engineer who speaks English, French, Italian and Euskera, and was appointed director of the Basque Country’s railways company, Euskal Trenbide Sarea, in February 2013.

The photo of the Basque polyglot engineer has been used to illustrate other stories, including reports from 2021 on his arrest in Madrid. Back then, Sarría Díaz was accused of violence and threats against his former son-in-law.

Sarría appears standing at Nicolasito’s side: gray hair and beard, military-green jacket, beige trousers, a smile suggesting a mission accomplished.

In January 2022, Spanish investigative outlet El Confidencial showed the first photo of the real Rafael Sarría. But his face was not visible. He appeared wearing a mask.

He was photographed entering the courts in Madrid to respond to accusations of assault from his former son-in-law, Roberto Elizondo León. The latter claimed Sarría beat him during a dispute over the custody of the child Elizondo had with Verónica Sarría, the businessman’s daughter.

It was not until May 2025 that Nicolás Maduro Guerra revealed a clearer image of Rafael Sarría, in an electoral campaign tour that reached the hallways of FM Center. In a TikTok video, the president’s son is seen walking through the Caracas headquarters. Sarría appears standing at his side: gray hair and beard, military-green jacket, beige trousers, a smile suggesting a mission accomplished.

A Venezuelan cybercrime expert explained that cases like Sarría’s can occur by error or by design. It may happen that someone misidentifies a name or photo of a public figure, publishes it, and others replicate it without malice or coordinated disinformation. One example was Carlos Erick Malpica Flores, nephew of Cilia Flores, who for a long time was mistaken for Temir Porras, a deputy foreign minister under Chávez. It took a 2015 investigative report in Venezuelan media to reveal the true face of the then–Pdvsa Finance Vice President and National Treasurer.

When false information spreads by design, it is a strategy to protect someone’s real identity. The expert recalls the case of Néstor Richardi Sequera, a former criminal leader in Tocuyito prison, Carabobo, who aspired to be an urban music singer. A few versions of his name circulated in the press to prevent proper identification.

In Sarría’s case, whether by error or design, the image shielding his identity collapsed thanks to a TikTok post from Nicolás Maduro Guerra. Those images expose the face of Sarría, the man who, through business and friendship, tied his fate to the most powerful figures of the chavista-madurista regime.

The video version of this story is available on the YouTube channel of El Pitazo.