The Justice of the United States sent yesterday to the National Court a report of the DEA (Administration for the Control of American Drugs) in which it details how the former president

The Justice of the United States sent to the National Court yesterday a report of the DEA (Administration for the Control of American Drugs) in which it details how the former president of Venezuela Hugo Chávez gathered in 2005 in his official residence to those responsible for Intelligence of the country to order them to "fight the US by flooding it with cocaine."

This document, to which EL MUNDO has had exclusive access , reveals that one of those attending the meeting was Hugo Carvajal, aka El Pollo , former head of Venezuelan Military Intelligence, arrested in Spain last April accused of drug trafficking and that he is currently imprisoned in the Estremera prison pending the resolution of the extradition request requested by the United States.

The DEA is based, among others, on the testimony of one of those attending the meeting, which he baptizes in code as "witness one", and clarifies that it is "a former judge who served in a court in Venezuela to from about 2005 ".

That same year, always according to the story he has given to the US authorities, the aforementioned meeting was held "at the home of the then President Chavez . " The same went, in addition to Carvajal and the commander himself, "General Henry de Jesus Rangel Silva, then head of a Venezuelan Intelligence agency known as DISIP; Diosdado Cabello, at that time governor of Miranda; and Tareck El Aissami, then member of the National Assembly of Venezuela. "

The DEA explains that "during the meeting Chávez urged the group, in substance and in part, to promote political objectives, including that of fighting the United States by flooding the country with cocaine." In this way, the American Drug Enforcement Agency adds that "Chávez ordered them", in a row, to "coordinate" with the Colombian guerrillas of the FARC to complete the plan.

This group, according to the aforementioned witness, went on to institutionalize the meetings every month and he claims to have attended at least four of them. These secret meetings happened to them, "approximately two or three weeks after the meeting at the presidential residence, a similar group", of which Carvajal was also part, and that " was summoned to the house of Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel ."

In that new appointment, the plan ordered by the president to develop it successfully was already detailed. "During the meeting Cabello described the land and sea routes of drug trafficking through Venezuela and Carvajal said that cocaine would be supplied by Colombian guerrillas , that is, the FARC."

Diosdado Cabello, 'number two' of the Maduro government, with Hugo Chávez, in 2002. Kimberly White

This team at the highest level would still meet again in the same place "about a month later." Then, Carvajal "told the group that the coordination with the comrades was going well and that he had met with the FARC leaders in Venezuela." Moving on to discuss with them " the division of drug profits and the supply of weapons as compensation ."

Cartel of the suns

Within the framework of this road map supposedly designed by Chavez, Carvajal, considered by the DEA as a prominent member of the so-called Cartel de los Soles, which he defines as "a Venezuelan drug trafficking organization composed of senior Venezuelan officials", he signed in April 2006 a DC-9 plane that took off from Venezuela in the direction of Toluca (Mexico), " but was forced to land in Campeche due to mechanical failures ."

The plane contained 5.6 tons of cocaine that the DEA attributes to Carvajal, who according to the American authorities, "asked the witness one who was a judge on duty in case the law enforcement authorities" linked him to the cargo.

In the framework of the collaboration with the FARC, Chavez also imposed that the Venezuelan Justice exonerate the members of the Colombian guerrillas from any crime in which they were immersed in Venezuelan territory linked to "murders, narcotics, kidnappings, shootings and extortion" . The second great witness to which the DEA clings is, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency itself, "a member of the Venezuelan army assigned as security for Chavez between 2008 and 2013". This "witness two" argues that "he provided security at a meeting organized by Chavez on a ranch, which was attended, among others, by Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín and FARC leader Luciano Marín Arango, aka Iván Márquez ". In that meeting, the chief of security of the same explains that «he heard Márquez describe the need for logistical support." Specifically, "uniforms, ships and computers." And then, "Chávez indicated that the funds would be provided to the FARC for Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the Venezuelan state oil company. "Also, according to this story," Chávez ordered witness two to bring him a telephone "and he" heard him talking to Carvajal. "In that conversation, the president "He ordered him to supply weapons to the FARC that had previously been used by the Venezuelan army and others, obtained new from Russia."

The DEA still relies on a third witness who "worked with Venezuelan government officials between 2008 and 2014 as a consultant in relation to paramilitary groups in Colombia." According to "witness three," Carvajal's team came to him for advice "to find more traffickers who would pay to use the drug trafficking routes established by the Venezuelan Government" and identified El Pollo as "responsible for establishing the drug routes to across South America. " He also revealed that "the Venezuelan military had provided ground-air missiles and explosives to the FARC."

A fourth witness, "who was involved in large-scale drug trafficking in Colombia and Venezuela since 1996," said he attended meetings in 1999 between the FARC and Carvajal in which the guerrillas had asked the chief of military intelligence. de Chávez "weapons of any kind", to which the Venezuelan Government agreed "in exchange for help with cocaine shipments" by providing "machine guns . "

Both this witness and half a dozen more, all involved in drug trafficking, link Carvajal in the organization of "approximately seven shipments of cocaine" more "that included bribes for corrupt Venezuelan officials."

Carvajal declared yesterday before the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber of the National Court, at the hearing that he reviewed the extradition petition filed by the United States and whose resolution will be known next week, according to legal sources. This Venezuelan military defended himself by assuring the court that the accusations made by the US authorities are false and denying having had contacts with the Colombian guerrillas. "I don't trust the United States justice," he said.

One of the lawyers of Carvajal with whom he contacted this newspaper, Nielson de Souza, described the petition of the United States as "political persecution" and defended the denial of extradition and that if his client has to be judged to be in court Spanish Supreme, being a military citizen. Carvajal's defense provided a document to the Third Section, dated 2008, in which, presumably, the pilot of the plane that transported the cocaine warned that the United States " is mounting a case in exchange for people to testify against the Government of Nicolás Maduro, "de Souza said.

The representative of Carvajal requested the denial of extradition alleging that the basic requirements and principles , "neither formal nor non-formal" have been breached . Among others, that the Spanish Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office intervened when, in the opinion of the defense of El Pollo , it must have been the Prosecutor's Office of the National Court, or that the detention was carried out based on an international order that is not the same as the one used in the judicial procedure. He also emphasizes that the accusation is based on the testimony of a dozen "confessed criminals" who "do not know Carvajal."

The lawyers, among which are also María Dolores de Argüelles and Ismael Moreno, denounce the "lightness" with which the United States links El Pollo with the Cartel de los Soles as it could have related "with the Ku Klux Klan or the Association National Rifle. " Carvajal himself already denied in an exclusive interview granted to EL MUNDO last July the drug trafficking accusations and linked them to the decision of the Government of Venezuela to expel the DEA from the country. The Prosecutor's Office supports the extradition of the Venezuelan.

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