Armando. info: Leave your mark and let’s party

Tequeños and whiskey in abundance circulated among the guests at the private party held on the night of March 10 at Caracas 360°, the Roof Bar that has once again become fashionable in this city, somewhat in decline after years of crisis.

The party took over the spaces of the upper platform of the establishment, which is located at the top of the Altamira Suites, a hotel in the northeast of Caracas. The panoramic view of the city, as well as La Silla de Caracas and the other mountains that flank the capital’s valley, gives the establishment its name and continues to be its main attraction. But there is no doubt that its atmosphere also adds value: it is frequented by members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of the media and international news agencies and, above all, by the emerging social class that has managed to prosper in the midst of the land devastated by Chavismo.

Carlos Pedro Briceño’s birthday was celebrated then and, buoyed by the congratulations, he played the music, mixing between the turntables as a DJ.

This was no ordinary birthday boy. Briceño has earned a certain fame in fairness, but not as a DJ. He is a national star of skydiving. On November 28, for example, he completed a feat that he described to the media as “his dream.” He flew with a wingsuit -literally, a suit with wings for gliding- from an area close to the Pico Oriental de La Silla in Caracas, to land on Boyacá Avenue or Cota Mil, the highway that traces the border of the city with the El Ávila National Park or Warairarepano, as it was renamed by Chavismo. The move, radical in itself, became extremely difficult by becoming a sort of aerial slalom, in which Briceño had to cross two targets, holes or doors during the flight.

Briceño’s feat was sponsored by the so-called Team Furia, the company with which Yoswal and Yosser Gavidia Flores, sons of the first combatant, Cilia Flores, sell an energy drink and organize, in the style of Red Bull, extreme sports events.

And on Briceño’s birthday, the one who toasted splendidly, offering drinks and appetizers was Marcos Javier Machado Requena, the owner of Caracas 360°.

Machado has made hospitality, nightlife and sequins his profession. In addition to the Roof Bar (whose legal entity in the records is 360° Pizza Lounge, CA), he runs other entertainment and hospitality establishments. However, due to its magnitude and relevance, this seems to be just a collateral line of business in the portfolio of the young entrepreneur, 43 years old. Because Machado Requena is, along with Guillermo San Agustín, one of the two partners of Ex-Cle SA and Ex-Cle Soluciones Biómicas CA, the names under which the Argentine company Ex-Cle has obtained multimillion-dollar contracts from the National Electoral Council (CNE). Ex-Cle provides crucial services to the CNEsuch as the software for voting machines or the management of biometric data, and a good part of this commercial success has had to do with the closeness – or, according to many testimonies, remote control – that the former rector and current president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez Gómez, and the military man and current electoral rector, Carlos Quintero, maintain with the company.

The secrecy maintained by Ex-Cle representatives after the election day of July 28, which produced a dubious official result, amid accusations of fraud and the refusal by the electoral body to present the minutes that would allow this result to be verified, has been striking.

In addition to his shareholding in both companies, Machado is a director of others that make up the network of suppliers of those: Inversiones Nanotecnología 3000, Datamap SRL, Neometrica CA and Inversiones Empacados 3000 CA

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