A January 2022 ruling by the Constitutional Chamber of Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal kept six internationally adopted children in the succession of the late billionaire Oswaldo Cisneros, overturning a decision that had excluded them. But the ruling did not end a bitter dispute between his widow and his three daughters over a fortune Venezuelan government sources say tax authorities valued at more than $10 billion.
The legal question was exequátur, the procedure by which certain foreign judgments are formally recognised in Venezuela. The six children were adopted in Romania and Colombia by Cisneros and his widow, Mireya Blavia de Cisneros, with whom he had no biological children. They are Carmen Elena, Camila Roxana, Alfonso Olaf, Oswaldo Antonio, Laura Gissel and Carla Giovana.
On May 12, 2021, Claudia Susana Cisneros Fontanals, one of three daughters from Cisneros’s first marriage, challenged their legal standing. Describing herself in the proceedings as a legitimate, compulsory and testamentary heir, she argued that the adoption judgments had never undergone exequátur and therefore could not produce legal effects in Venezuela or establish the six as Cisneros’s children for inheritance purposes.
The challenge first succeeded. On August 3, 2021, the Supreme Tribunal’s Social Cassation Chamber held that the foreign adoption decisions required exequátur, ruled that the six Cisneros-Blavia children lacked standing in the relevant succession proceedings and ordered related proceedings involving them archived.
Mireya sought constitutional review. On January 31, 2022, the Constitutional Chamber annulled the August 2021 judgment, finding that qualifying international adoptions governed by the Hague Convention did not require the additional exequátur the Social Chamber had demanded. The ruling defeated the attempt to exclude the six on that ground, though it did not resolve every issue in the inheritance dispute.
Cisneros died in Miami on November 8, 2020. His three daughters, Claudia Susana, Maritza Blanca and María Ella Cisneros Fontanals, have been litigating over the adopted children’s inheritance rights, their father’s testamentary arrangements and administration of an estate linked to telecommunications giant Digitel, oil, real estate and other businesses.
His closed will, registered in Venezuela in December 2017, named Mireya and all nine children as his “sole and universal heirs”. The daughters’ lawyers have questioned those arrangements, alleging they disadvantaged the daughters by giving the six adopted children greater collective influence. There have also been allegations that Mireya sought majority control of family trusts and businesses through the six children’s voting strength.
Venezuelan government sources allege the adoptions were part of a long-term arrangement to alter voting power within family structures and give Mireya’s branch majority influence, potentially at the daughters’ expense. One official alleged irregularities and possible fabrication in the adoptions, claiming they were used to obtain majority voting control of the family trust. These allegations have not been established by the court rulings described above.
Claudia also pursued a criminal route. In July 2021, a Caracas court admitted her complaint against Mireya alleging private violence, extortion and association to commit crimes, based on alleged threats, coercion and unlawful pressure intended to compel her to perform or tolerate acts she was not legally required to accept, and conduct aimed at securing a financial advantage or causing her loss. Admission of the complaint did not constitute a finding of guilt, and the available material does not establish its final outcome.
Government sources allege that the SENIAT tax authority calculated a potential inheritance-tax liability exceeding $3 billion. One official claimed there was no record of payment and said authorities were examining inheritance and succession-tax obligations. The figures and payment status have not been independently verified.
The same sources have alleged wider personal and corporate tax liabilities, underinvestment, bribery, political kickbacks and irregularities involving family-linked businesses, including Digitel, one of the country’s largest mobile operators, and oil and real estate interests. Officials have alleged failures to meet investment commitments and possible corruption during the presidency of Nicolás Maduro. Government sources have described Mireya as a close ally of the former president and raised suspicions that she has continued lobbying on his behalf, claims that require independent corroboration.
A legal source representing Mireya disputed aspects of the government’s allegations, while acknowledging underinvestment and unfulfilled commitments and attributing some of those difficulties to US sanctions affecting Venezuela’s financial system. A legal representative said she would continue to contest Claudia’s legal challenges.
