Within the facilities of the Housing Fund (Fopavi), an office operated that was dedicated to defrauding families who were looking for a subsidy to build a house. The “processor” was not listed as an employee of the institution, but he had a physical space in which he did his business.
The irregular activities of this office are totally contrary to the mission that this agency of the Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing (CIV) presents on its website: “Contribute and guarantee Guatemalan families in conditions of poverty and extreme poverty, access to a decent, adequate and healthy housing unit, through a subsidy.”
The tenant of the ghost office was Javier Alejandro Vásquez López who, according to public records on the Guatecompras portal, was a worker at Fopavi (formerly Foguavi) from 2012 to 2016 in the financial and analysis area. Videos from security cameras to which Noticiero Guatevisión and Prensa Libre had access show that Vásquez López never left the institution even though he did not officially work there.
The recordings show Vásquez López on January 26 of this year walking in the different areas of Fopavi, from the legal department to the office of the former director of said entity, Vinicio Pazos.
As observed in the videos, Vásquez López asked the workers to sign documents in order to carry out his scams; This version was confirmed by Walter Monroy, new director of Fopavi, who has already filed complaints with the Public Ministry (MP) about the irregular activities found.
They delivered Q51 thousand in cash
On the road that leads to Masagua, Escuintla is the Valle de las Carmelitas housing project, a space where about 400 families live. Since 2014, they began the subsidy process which, according to Fopavi regulations, can be a maximum contribution of Q35 thousand per household.
In March 2023, the residents of the community went to the Fopavi headquarters in zone 9 of the capital to obtain a response to their procedures and were assisted by Vásquez who promised to help them obtain the subsidy.
“We were served by a character who called himself Gustavo, Gustavo Véliz, but in the end that was not his real name, the real name was Javier Vásquez. They never attended to us outside the offices – Fopavi – whenever we arrived at the one-stop shop they sent us to the office where Mr. Gustavo or Javier or whatever his name was kept,” Mario Ellington, 61, explained to Noticiero Guatevisión and Prensa Libre. years and president of the Cocode del Valle de las Carmelitas.
On May 9, 2023, members of the Cocode del Valle de las Carmelitas delivered Q51,000 in cash to Vásquez López, because he assured them that a new socioeconomic study had to be paid for. Each family paid Q325. As proof, Vásquez López signed and sealed a sheet detailing the delivery of the cash that was received at Fopavi at 12:14 noon.
This was the fourth time that families in Valle de las Carmelitas paid for a socioeconomic study, according to Erick Mayorga, developer of the housing project. The last one was paid on December 22, 2019 to the NGO-ADEGUA.
Intermediaries
According to article 12 of the Fopavi Operating Regulations for the granting of a subsidy, they can be carried out through Authorized Intermediary Entities (EIA) that are in charge of “carrying out the functions to facilitate the population’s access to a housing solution” such as carrying out of socioeconomic studies.
For this, they must have an act of legalization of documents such as registration in the Commercial Registry and in the Superintendency of Banks, appointment of the legal representative, business patent, among others. In the case of Vásquez López, the current Fopavi authorities confirmed that he is not registered.
The videos
In a security video from January 26 of this year, it is observed that a man – not yet identified – enters the Fopavi headquarters with a bulging manila envelope and immediately goes to the office that was used by Vásquez López.
After 17 minutes, the unidentified man leaves that office, but the envelope appears empty. Javier Vásquez López comes out next to him with his hand in his pants pocket and, after saying goodbye to the subject, he immediately goes to the office of the then director of the fund Vinicio Pazos. Two hours later he returns to the ghost office again.
When the community members handed over the cash, they did so at the one-stop shop and Javier Vásquez López told them that the approval of the subsidy would be ready in between 30 to 45 days.
Coincidentally, when the new authorities entered, the current IT director of Fopavi, Juan Antonio Velásquez, indicated that there was no archive of last year’s security videos. Due to this case and other anomalies, the new authorities dismissed 41 workers from the entity distributed as follows: 34 in line 029, six in line 188 and one in line 184. The new director assures that no one responded when interviewing the workers. about who Javier Vásquez López was and why he had an office inside.
“Fopavi must respond”
In the Valley of the Carmelites, the leaders comment that many neighbors have died waiting for the subsidy to be approved and some chose to build their homes with sheet metal, wood and low-cost materials, even though they still do not have deeds. In the place, according to a visit made by Guatevisión and Prensa Libre, there are streets that do not have asphalt, the electricity service only arrived two years ago and the drainage does not have a treatment plant.
“We are not going to lose that money. Maybe for many people it will be little, but for those of us who have a hard time earning money, it is quite a lot,” said Dámaris Carranza, 50, one of the scammed women.
“Internally I don’t know how they are going to fix it, but the problem occurred within Fopavi and they have to solve it. We do not accept at any time the loss of that money, nor the time, much less our home,” she emphasized.
Víctor Ocaña, another of those affected, assured that after the scam was revealed, the community was affected. “When our colleagues at Cocode told us that the project and the stationery store do not exist in Fopavi, we were shocked. How can it be possible that a government institution does not have the stationery store where we have already paid?”
Noticiero Guatevisión and Prensa Libre sought the position of Javier Vásquez in his home located in Colonia Castillo Lara in zone 7. His mother, Blanca López, confirmed that Javier worked at Fopavi and assured that he did not live in said residence. Minutes after the journalists left the scene, a call was received from Vásquez López who said he would give his position after receiving legal advice and avoided answering questions about the scam complaint.
Meanwhile, the families of the Carmelite Community continue to wait for the State to resolve their situation that has been going on for more than 10 years.
More than 2 thousand affected
The director of Fopavi, Walter Monroy, who took office on February 16 of this year, explained that in the last month they have responded to complaints from 15 communities seeking a response so that their subsidy files are approved. He pointed out that in all cases altered documents were presented and in some there were forged signatures. The total number of affected people could exceed 2 thousand families.
“They all present me documents that were delivered and manipulated by him -Javier Vásquez López-, but it turns out that the majority have alterations in various parts of the documents. The information we have in the database does not match what this person gave to these beneficiaries,” says the director of the fund.
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