Telefónica unifica mando en Venezuela ante inminente venta de filial

Telefónica has consolidated its command structure in Venezuela by placing all executive authority in the hands of Antonio Valente Izzi, a Venezuelan who has served as the company's chief financial officer since 2018 and became chief executive in October 2024. The move comes as José Luis Rodríguez Zarco, a Spanish executive who led the Venezuelan operation for eight years, prepares to return to Spain at the end of June. While Telefónica's official statement attributes Zarco's departure to personal and family reasons, financial analysts interpret the restructuring as a deliberate preparation for the sale of the Venezuelan subsidiary. Valente's background in accounting and administration—more than two decades in the company's financial divisions—positions him to facilitate the detailed asset audits that potential buyers will demand.

The timing of this executive shuffle aligns with a dramatic shift in Venezuela's political and economic landscape. Nicolás Maduro's government has given way to a new administration led by Delcy Rodríguez, which faces intense pressure from the United States to implement market-oriented reforms in exchange for sanctions relief. The new government has begun dismantling currency controls that have strangled the Venezuelan economy for years, allowing foreign currency to flow more freely. This opening reduces the financial risk that has long deterred international investors from Venezuelan assets. Movistar, Telefónica's Venezuelan brand, operates a network serving roughly ten million customers and is expanding its 5G infrastructure—assets that suddenly look more attractive to foreign buyers now that the regulatory environment is shifting.

The Venezuelan sale represents the final chapter in Telefónica's systematic retreat from Latin America, a strategy designed to reduce corporate debt and concentrate resources in Europe and Brazil. In April of this year, the Spanish multinational sold its entire Mexican subsidiary to a consortium called Melisa Acquisition, which includes the technology platform Oxio and the investment fund Newfoundland Capital Management, for 450 million dollars. Before that, the Luxembourg-based telecommunications group Millicom acquired Telefónica's operations across Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Chile, operating them under the Tigo brand. Peru's assets went to Integra Tec, while Argentina's operations were sold to Telecom Argentina, a company controlled by the Clarín media group and Fintech investors. Venezuela is the last major piece of this dismantling.

The path to sale is not without obstacles. Venezuela's currency controls, imposed during Hugo Chávez's era and maintained through Maduro's rule, prevented Telefónica from repatriating profits earned in the country, creating substantial currency losses and eroding the value of the company's assets. The financial damage was severe enough that Telefónica stopped reporting Venezuelan results separately in its global financial statements starting in 2017. The new government's willingness to relax these controls has improved the investment climate, but regulatory hurdles remain formidable. The National Telecommunications Commission, known as Conatel, retains the legal authority to block any sale on grounds of public interest or national security. The commission can also impose conditions on any transaction, including requirements to maintain service continuity and fulfill investment commitments.

Telefónica has already pledged to invest 500 million dollars in Venezuelan infrastructure, a commitment made earlier this year to Conatel that any buyer will likely be required to honor. Venezuela also lacks a system called number portability, which allows customers to switch carriers while keeping their phone numbers. This absence means any sale must be executed carefully to preserve the Movistar brand and ensure uninterrupted service—a buyer cannot simply absorb the customer base and rebrand it without risking service disruptions. These technical and regulatory constraints narrow the field of potential acquirers and complicate the transaction structure.

Domestically, the most obvious candidate is Digitel, a private operator owned by the Cisneros Group, which controls 35.6 percent of Venezuela's mobile market and 13.7 percent of fixed broadband. A direct merger between Movistar and Digitel would create a duopoly controlling nearly 78 percent of the mobile market—a concentration so high that Conatel would almost certainly demand the surrender of radio spectrum licenses as a condition of approval. The state-owned operator CANTV and its mobile subsidiary Movilnet together hold 23.2 percent of the market; a state acquisition of Movistar would push public control above 65 percent, a scenario the new government's pro-privatization economic team has already ruled out.

International bidders present a different calculus. Millicom, the Luxembourg group that already operates across much of the Andean region, is evaluating the Venezuelan assets as a way to strengthen its regional footprint. The United States government has signaled strategic approval for foreign operators backed by European or American capital, viewing such ownership as preferable to allowing critical telecommunications infrastructure to fall under the control of state-owned companies from Russia or China. This geopolitical dimension adds weight to the sale process: Washington wants to ensure that Venezuela's communications network remains in private hands aligned with Western interests, even as the country navigates its post-Maduro transition. The coming months will reveal whether Conatel's regulatory authority and Venezuela's market structure allow such a transaction to proceed.