In the early hours of Wednesday, February 21, a group of armed individuals entered an apartment in the commune of Independencia, and then took away Lieutenant (r) of the Venezuelan Army, Ronald Ojeda Moreno, who was recently linked by the Venezuelan government to the operation White Bracelet that sought the overthrow of Nicolás Maduro.
Carabineros and the PDI are searching for the soldier, after his family reported his kidnapping to the Public Ministry, in an investigation classified as secret.
Security cameras captured the dramatic moment. Four people arrived in a car that had a police beacon, posing as PDI officials. These individuals, equipped with ballistic helmets and bulletproof vests, entered Ojeda Moreno’s apartment and forcibly removed him. Subsequently, the vehicle left the scene and the lieutenant (r) is still missing.
“The President considers this to be a priority”
Given this situation, and after reinforcing border controls and alerting Interpol, the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, announced that the Government will file a complaint in relation to the kidnapping. This action will be carried out once the Prosecutor’s Office confirms the existence of crimes associated with the incident.
“The Government, as in other cases of serious crimes, such as homicides and kidnappings, has decided to file a complaint,” declared Monsalve. Furthermore, he highlighted the importance of this measure as a political signal that the Government is committed to justice and non-impunity in these cases, in addition to joining the efforts to clarify this type of crimes.
“Obviously the President (Gabriel Boric) considers this a priority. There are a series of instructions that I am not going to detail because it is part of the private meeting with the President of the Republic, but he gave a series of instructions to both the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” commented Undersecretary Monsalve.
Venezuelan opposition demands answers
The announcement by the Government of Chile comes after parties opposing Maduro in Venezuela demanded answers and asked to guarantee the security of Venezuelans in the country.
“We alert the international community about the disappearance of retired Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Ojeda in Chilean territory by alleged Venezuelan military officials,” said Voluntad Popular (VP), the party of Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López, in its X account, where it asked the Chilean State to provide answers about the situation of the Venezuelan and “ensure his physical integrity.”
For its part, Vente Venezuela, a party led by former congresswoman María Corina Machado, called on national authorities to “guarantee the security” of Venezuelans in the country, after the kidnapping of Ojeda Moreno. “We call on the Chilean government to guarantee the safety of Venezuelan compatriots in migratory status as refugees and asylum seekers in Chile, given the concern of their families over recent events,” the group stated in a statement.
It is worth mentioning that Ojeda’s name appears on the list released at the end of January by the Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino, which includes 33 soldiers demoted and expelled from the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) “involved in conspiracies” against the Venezuelan government, which included the assassination of Nicolás Maduro.
The Government of Chile acknowledged this Thursday that “it is open to all hypotheses” regarding the kidnapping of a retired military officer of Venezuelan nationality in Santiago and confirmed that it has maintained “contacts” with the Venezuelan authorities.
Undersecretary Monsalve explained at a press conference that the contacts have been both “at the diplomatic level”, through the Chilean ambassador in Caracas, and “at the police level from the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI) with the Venezuelan police.”
Despite acknowledging that at the moment no hypothesis has been ruled out, including a Venezuelan counterintelligence operation, Monsalve called for caution and assured that “very premature conclusions have been reached by different actors.”
“There are many hypotheses here. The hypothesis that matters is the one that is finally validated by the Public Ministry and the prosecutor in charge of the investigation,” stressed the undersecretary after participating in a virtual meeting with President Boric, and the ministers of the Interior, Foreign Affairs and Justice.
“With the hammer giving”
The first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Diosdado Cabello, dismissed the accusations about the kidnapping of Ojeda Moreno in Chile, during his program “Con el mallet giving.”
Being the first and only statement from a Venezuelan government authority, Cabello ironically commented on the hypothesis of the participation of Venezuelan soldiers in the kidnapping, wondering why no Latin American country detected a command from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) and Ojeda’s transfer to Venezuela.
“Go ahead and say that a Dgcim commando went to Chile, they kidnapped a guy there and brought him from Chile to here (…) they went through all the countries and no one found out. “We are champions, if we can do that… Who can stop us in this world?” He said.
Cabello, a deputy and considered Chavismo’s number two, also questioned the former head of intelligence and security of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, Iván Simonovis, who pointed to the intervention of the DGCIM in the kidnapping.
“There is a version that Simonovis discovered, according to. If Simonovis had been a good investigator, he would have realized what was happening in his house. (…) The guy discovered that, but he did not discover what was happening in his house when he went out,” Cabello said.