Hopelessness is probably the best word to describe the state of mind of a former Venezuelan intelligence officer currently residing in Chile, as a political refugee, who agreed to talk with The counter as long as his identity and any data that could lead to it were protected, since he assures that the Venezuelan dissidents in the country are aware that there are several other people who could be the object of “extractions” (the euphemism used in the world of intelligence not to use the word “kidnapping”), like the one carried out against former lieutenant Ronald Ojeda, a week ago.
In fact, he asserts that several days ago he requested protection from the Carabineros, but he says that so far this has not been made effective, and he assures that there are more than a hundred Venezuelan secret agents in the country, belonging to the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin). ) and the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), which – it indicates – act together abroad.
He is close to Ronald Ojeda and reports that he arrived in Chile after he was imprisoned in 2017 and accused of wanting to overthrow the Maduro regime, but he affirms that the concept is not exact, as he points out that “article 350 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela says literally that every Venezuelan citizen can disown the authorities that contradict democratic principles or Human Rights.”
He adds that he has no doubts that his country’s intelligence services are behind the kidnapping, stating that “we know very well that the Venezuelan narco-state, the regime of Nicolás Maduro, has tentacles infiltrated in all parts of the world.”
–Did you suspect that something like this could happen in Chile?
-We all suspected, because here in Chile it is known that there are more than a hundred or so military intelligence and counterintelligence officials.
-Can you specify the figure?
-There are about 185. We have had information from Venezuela. From both Sebin and the DGCIM there will be a total of 185 people who are distributed throughout Chile, to whom they also give their operations orders for other countries, let’s talk about Argentina, let’s talk about Paraguay, Uruguay, do you understand?
As he explains, their function would be to persecute dissident military and civilians. Although the figure of 185 agents mentioned seems very high, three different sources, linked to different Chilean intelligence services, indicated to The counter It is feasible. By 2020, according to information provided by one of these sources, the names of 65 Sebin agents alone were registered in the country.
Another of the sources consulted explained that it would be necessary to distinguish those who are formal agents of said services from those who are helpers or informants and that, taking into account the above, the number is not exaggerated, considering the large number of migrants in the country. Chili.
The Ojeda case
-I understand that you are close to Lieutenant Ojeda. Can you tell me what happened in these last few months in his life?
–Well, look, I wasn’t close to Lieutenant Ojeda either, but the information I have… nothing, I mean, everything was normal. It was a normal life.
-Had he traveled to your country?
–Well, that’s another story. Captain Ányelo Heredia names him in an operation that I was unaware of, I have to be very sincere and frank about that, and the captain is caught crossing the border between Cúcuta and Venezuela, and Lieutenant Ojeda manages to escape.
-I mean, Lieutenant Ojeda was there at that time then…
–He was with Captain Ányelo Heredia. This is what Captain Heredia says, I don’t know, I don’t know –reiterates.
It is worth remembering that on December 14 of last year, Captain Heredia (who was imprisoned in the Ramo Verde prison, along with Lieutenant Ojeda) tried to enter Venezuela from Cúcuta, with the aim – according to the statement issued by the Venezuelan prosecutor’s office – of commit an attack against an Army brigade and the murders of the governor of the state of Táchira, Freddy Bernal, the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino, and Nicolás Maduro.
According to a “confession” by Heredia, recorded on video and released by the regime, among the people with whom he was going to enter Colombia were “Lieutenant Ojeda, Sergeant Pérez and Sergeant Angulo“. In the same television piece, Heredia, who appears to be reading a teleprompterstates that in the United States, through other dissident former Venezuelan military personnel, he met with CIA personnel.
In this regard, he asserts that they gave “the go-ahead” to the plan, called “White Bracelet” and that after that “I began to contact First Lieutenant Ojeda Moreno, Sergeant Pérez and other sergeants who we had already had relations with because of the relationship when we were in Colombia, the cucutazo“, referring to the act led on February 23, 2019 by the then president of Colombia, Iván Duque, and the now deceased former president Sebastián Piñera, steps from the Tienditas bridge, on the border between Colombia and Venezuela.
Indeed, one of the aspects on which the Prosecutor’s Office and the PDI are currently focused, regarding the kidnapping of Ojeda from his Independence department, is related to trying to determine his movements between December and January, as well as establishing whether he left or not from the country, something that – if it happened – it is ruled out that it would have been carried out through any authorized step.
Protection?
-In your case, you are one of the former Venezuelan soldiers who requested police protection, right?
–Yes, yes, three days ago.
-And that was requested in what institution?
-In Carabineros.
-And was any measure dictated for your benefit?
-Well, look, as I say, the State has its protocols and they will also know how they are going to coordinate protection, but undoubtedly I cannot attribute all responsibility to the State, because I imagine that there are other priorities and it is not that at this moment We soldiers who are here are not priorities for the State, but…
-Sorry, in that sense, then, I understand that this protection has not been made effective…
-No no.
-What is your status in Chile? Is he an asylum?
-Yes, asylum. I have all my documents up to date.
-It is striking that being isolated, being in the same situation as Lieutenant Ojeda, in a very similar situation, that protection has not been provided…
-The Chilean State, whether by omission or by “acceptance”, I don’t know if the word fits, never thought this was going to happen – he asserts, as if trying to explain the lack of measures.
About, The counter consulted the Southern Prosecutor’s Office, whose head, Héctor Barros – who is also the head of the Team against Organized Crime and Homicide, ECOH – is in charge of the investigation into the “extraction” of Ojeda regarding the measures for the former military personnel who , like this one, have requested protection, of which there would be at least nine to date.
Given this, it was responded that ECOH only handles cases of kidnappings and homicides as such. If there are complaints about threats, they added from the South Prosecutor’s Office, they must be seen by the corresponding local Prosecutor’s Office, due to the principle of execution of the crime.
In the Undersecretary of the Interior, meanwhile, it was indicated that the issuance of protection measures is the exclusive responsibility of the Prosecutor’s Office and that they are only being carried out in the case of complaints.
The former intelligence officer concludes by pointing out that “the Aragua Train is a child of the Bolivarian revolution” and assures that what happened with Lieutenant Ojeda “is a message intended for all those who oppose Nicolás Maduro,” along with also stating that the objective of the kidnapping is “to tell all the dissidents in the world ‘look: I went into Chile, I did whatever I wanted in Chile, I took an officer’”, but not to just anyone, he adds, but “to “a person who had protection, who had protection, who had everything.”
