24/03/2020
The Coder and the Dictator
Just after midnight one Tuesday in early 2018, the vice president of Venezuela commandeered the nationâs TV airwaves. Looking composed despite the hour, in a blue suit and red tie, he announced that the government was about to make history by becoming the first on Earth to sell its own cryptocurrency. It would be known as the Petro.
Three blocks away, in the vice presidentâs sprawling offices, Gabriel JimĂ©nez was sitting blearily at an enormous glass conference table, pounding away at a laptop. Powerful air-conditioners chilled the air to a crisp. Lanky, with big black glasses set between a scruffy beard and a receding hairline, Mr. JimĂ©nez had spent months designing and coding every detail of the Petro. Now, alongside his lead programmer, he was racing to make it operational, despite the fact that basic decisions had still not been made.
Just after the vice president signed off the air, his chief of staff burst into the office, furious. Mr. JimĂ©nez couldnât understand â something about typos on a website, an embarrassment to the nation. The chief brought in two guards, armed with military rifles, and told Mr. JimĂ©nez and his programmer that they were forbidden to leave. If they made any attempt to communicate with the outside world, they would be on their way to El Helicoide. It was a distinctly Venezuelan symbol of terror: a futuristic mall project, with car ramps between stores, converted into a political prison and center of torture.
ImageThe political prison known as El Helicoide. Mr. Jiménez recalls being told at one point: “If you don’t hand over the file, I won’t be responsible for what happens to you.”
The political prison known as El Helicoide. Mr. JimĂ©nez recalls being told at one point: âIf you donât hand over the file, I wonât be responsible for what happens to you.âCredit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
Below the table, Mr. Jiménez furtively texted his wife. Although she had recently left him, he asked her to send him a hug and to tell his father that he was in trouble.
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Mr. Jiménez was finally released just before sunrise. When he made it to his apartment, he burst into sobs. Before he had time to collect himself, he got a call. The president himself, Nicolås Maduro, requested his presence. Mr. Jiménez walked to the presidential palace, pushing his way through the crowds outside with a sense of exhaustion and dread.
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A few months earlier, the idea that Mr. JimĂ©nez would be called before the tyrant who ruled Venezuela would have been unimaginable. Mr. JimĂ©nez was just 27, ran a tiny start-up, and had spent years protesting the dictator. Mr. Maduro had not just mismanaged his country into financial crisis â he had detained, tortured and murdered those who challenged his power.
But whatever Mr. JimĂ©nez felt about the regime, he felt just as strongly about the potential of cryptocurrency. When the Maduro administration approached him about creating a digital coin, Mr. JimĂ©nez saw an opportunity to change his country from within. If a national cryptocurrency was done right, Mr. JimĂ©nez believed, he could give the government what it wanted â a way to fight hyperinflation â while also stealthily introducing technology that would give Venezuelans a measure of freedom from a government that dictated every detail of daily life.
His friends and family warned him that working with the regime could only end badly. The person overseeing the effort, Vice President Tareck El Aissami, had been called a âdrug kingpinâ by the U.S. government and would soon be named to a federal âMost Wantedâ list. Mr. JimĂ©nez acknowledged the danger, but he talked about the Petro as a Trojan horse that would sneak in the kind of reforms that he and the opposition had been dreaming about for years.
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The years 2017 and 2018 were full of drama for everyone in the crypto world, as the price of Bitcoin shot up more than a thousand percent before crashing. Billion-dollar fortunes were made and lost. But perhaps no one had as perilous a ride as Mr. JimĂ©nez. His faith in digital currency transported him from obscurity to the center of his countryâs dark institutions of power. He found himself negotiating directly with Mr. Maduro and his top deputies, who often praised his ingenuity â before escalating threats to Mr. JimĂ©nezâs life drove him into exile.
âThe actual goal of the project was to change the economic model of the oppressive regime,â he told The Times recently. âThis was my mission and my gamble, in a bet that ended costing everything I had in my life: my friends, my partners, my reputation, my love, my company and my country.â
Image
President Maduro in Caracas in 2017. Children have starved under his despotic rule.
President Maduro in Caracas in 2017. Children have starved under his despotic rule.Credit...Office of the Venezuelan President
Mr. Jiménez has been identified as the author of the Petro before, but he has never told his story. This account is based on hundreds of pages of confidential emails, text messages and government documents, as well as interviews with more than a dozen people who were involved with the project. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because they still live in Venezuela, where openly criticizing the government can quickly lead to prison or death.
