Court accepts lawsuit against alleged document forgers

The First State Control Court of Nueva Esparta admitted a criminal complaint filed against three people who allegedly submitted documents obtained fraudulently to access a family patrimony.

The complaint, which is a request for a criminal investigation filed by a private individual, was registered in the aforementioned Nueva Esparta court under the nomenclature OP04-P-2026-000624. In that file, María Desiree Marcano, María Esperanza Marcano, Aleida Benilde Gamero Rivas, and María Magdalena Gamero de Guiliani appear as defendants or alleged violators of the law.

The accepted complaint requests the court to investigate the four people because they are allegedly involved in the crimes of using a false public document, making false statements before a public official, and conspiracy.

Jesús Tadeo Gamero Toro filed the lawsuit, explaining in the document that, due to his father Hernán José Gamero Rivas's health condition, he requested a court to approve a civil interdiction proceeding, given that his father lacked the mental capacity to manage the family businesses. This request was approved on September 22, 2025, and consequently, Jesús Gamero assumed control of the family assets after being appointed interim guardian.

María Esperanza and María Marcano sought to intervene in the administration of the family estate, claiming to be the daughters of Hernán Gamero. To demonstrate this, they submitted "an alleged paternity acknowledgment certificate…issued by the Civil and Electoral Registry Commission of the state of Delta Amacuro, municipality of Tucupita, parish of San José, which states that the declarant, María Magdaleno Gamero de Guiliani, 80 years of age, recognizes María José as the daughter of her brother, Hernán Gamero." A similar document was submitted regarding María Esperanza Marcano.

Jesús Gamero recalled that the Third Civil Court of Nueva Esparta accepted these documents and granted the Marcano sisters a right to participate, "since the evidence they provided proved their blood relationship to my father." However, he cautioned that his father "never authorized or recognized any of these women as his legitimate daughters."

To describe what Jesús Gamero considers a criminal and fraudulent act, he brought up in his complaint the fact that sisters María Desiree and María Esperanza submitted their original birth certificates to the Third Civil Court of Nueva Esparta, establishing them as the natural daughters of Hernán Gamero, along with copies of their identity cards. Jesús Gamero added that they "failed to include in the proceedings the corresponding paternity acknowledgments duly signed by my father with his respective fingerprints, as required by Article 97 of the Civil Registry Law; in other words, the case file lacks suitable proof of his acknowledgment of paternity." 

Gamero alleges in the complaint that the "procedural fraud" continued when the Third Civil Court of Nueva Esparta revoked his appointment as provisional guardian of his father and designated María Desiree Marcano, "with the sole purpose of taking over my father's estate."

That decision was carried out on April 17 in Pampatar (Nueva Esparta) when prosecutor Fabiola Arocha arrived at the residence of Hernán Gamero, who was asleep. She woke him and took him into custody to hand him over to María Desiree Marcano, according to the complaint, which denounces the raid as irregular because it was a civil procedure that should have been carried out by a court in that jurisdiction. Gamero also reported that during the raid, $15 and his personal documents were stolen from his residence.

Finally, Gamero requested the Public Ministry to assign a prosecutor to investigate the events described in the complaint already admitted by the First Control Court of Nueva Esparta.