A church pastor, a building janitor, a mining truck mechanic, a private plane mechanic, a nanny, a taxi driver, an engineer, two travel agents, four Uber drivers, four deliveriesand a significant number of security guards and logistics heads are some of the occupations of the more than 30 ex-military personnel who are in Chile after fleeing the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela.
On the list – whose exact number Executive authorities asked not to reveal – there are men and women (only 5) from the Bolivarian Army (EB), the Bolivarian Navy (AB), the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) and the Venezuelan Air Force, who It was renamed by Hugo Chávez as Bolivarian Military Aviation (AMB).
The number and lives of the Venezuelan soldiers who deserted their Armed Forces, due to their rejection of the regime of Nicolás Maduro, and settled in Chile, gained special interest after the kidnapping of the former 1st lieutenant of the Bolivarian Army, Ronald Ojeda, last Wednesday, February 21. Fact by which the Public Ministry and the PDI work on various investigative theses, among them, an organized crime operation, a political kidnapping or an intelligence operation.
On the list of former uniformed officers of the Caribbean country, the youngest are 27 years old and the oldest are 60. There are officers and non-commissioned officers ranging from the rank of 1st corporal to general. In fact, there are three 1st corporals from the National Guard and two generals from the Army. In addition to sergeants, lieutenants, captains, commanders, four colonels and a ship captain.
Most of the “more than 30 ex-military” Venezuelans living in Chile deserted and fled the country. Others, mainly from the National Guard, asked for permission to leave the country and did not return.
“In the National Guard until a while ago there were less strict regulations than for the Army or Aviation. One could ask for permission to be absent for vacation or something. I took advantage of it to escape and never return. We are in charge of public order, rural security in remote places, environmental things. Now we are part of the Bolivarian Armed Forces, but historically we had been a police force,” explains a former non-commissioned officer who agreed to talk with The counter.
“I was detained in Sebin”
Of the total number of former uniformed officers, four officers were held in the National Center for Military Proceedings in Ramo Verde, in the state of Miranda, and a few were in the Center for Military Proceedings, in that same region, and in the La Pica Prison, in the state of Monagas.
“Those are three of the five prisons that Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship allocates for Venezuelan soldiers,” as he explains to The counter a colonel who passed through Ramo Verde, the same prison where Ronald Ojeda was in 2017, before escaping.
“I was in two movements to overthrow the Government. And, well, in the second operation I was captured and imprisoned, we were captured. I was detained in the Sebin barracks, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, and later in Ramo Verde. But we always adhere to article 350 of the National Constitution of Venezuela: that every Venezuelan has the right to demonstrate. When I managed to escape, I came to Chile. I arrived in 2015, I think I was one of the first officers to arrive. Now many more have arrived, but not all of them have participated in raids against the regime, but rather they have arrived because they have fled the dictatorship and because they have not agreed with the guidelines that that regime has given,” says the former military man, who asks reserve his identity, and that he met the kidnapped former lieutenant in Chile.
“All of us who have been in the different operations to overthrow the dictatorial government of Nicolás Maduro know each other, of course. I met Ronald here in Chile once. When I was already here, he had an operation with a group of officers that was also along the same lines of ending tyranny. I met him here in Chile through a captain, but we didn’t have much direct contact… We did make a friendship… that we were always aware of (…). I have not spoken with his family, I understand that other officers have communicated with his mother. (…) In fact, I did not know that he was in progress in that supposed Operation White Bracelet. If I had known… I would have advised him that it was madness… That four people, ten people or twenty people are going to overthrow a regime… It is a lie… Or as I classify it now, it is quixotic (…). A totalitarian regime that has all the devices, all the operational logistics, satellites (…) to neutralize anyone who is against them (…). Today they just notified me that there is a colleague of mine who was taken prisoner. And he is really sad, because he simply had a relationship with Dr. Rocío San Miguel (Venezuelan activist Rocío San Miguel, detained on February 9),” says the former uniformed man.
From Venezuela to Puerto Montt
Almost all of the former uniformed men who arrived in Chile chose to go live in the regions, “because they are quieter cities.” Few stayed in the capital. In fact, there are eight in Valparaíso, five in Temuco, five in Talca, while others opted for the provinces of Coquimbo, Concepción, Antofagasta, Los Ríos and Puerto Montt.
“The majority seem to live outside of Santiago. He is calmer, supposedly safer. (…) I stayed in Santiago because my daughters are here. Those who are in the regions have adapted very well there, they have their families, they have brought them with sacrifice,” says one of them.
Those who agreed to talk to this medium explain that it is difficult for them to find well-paid jobs, because “many documents to prove studies have to be requested from Venezuela, requesting them at the embassy is not possible.”
Several are regulars in commenting on current events in their country on social networks. For example, there are a dozen tweeters with pseudonyms, but who in their accounts identify themselves as former officers of the Venezuelan Armed Forces.
Others show off the uniform they were wearing in various photographs on Facebook. Also images denouncing practices of the Maduro regime or remembering the anniversaries of soldiers found dead in various situations in their country.
A significant number actively participate in the evangelical, Lutheran or Pentecostal religion, and attend temples on Sundays. A striking case is that of a pastor of a Christian creed, who participates “in Sunday worship,” but who excused himself from providing his testimony for this report.
Different views of the Ojeda case
Surprising stories are told among ex-military personnel. For example, that of a corporal who was working, in 2016, at the Ramo Verde National Center for Military Prosecutions, while inside the prison there was an officer he knew who was being tortured. As fate would have it, they both arrived in Chile. It was not possible to hear their testimonies.
According to what they point out, this week, some of the former officers met via Zoom with retired comrades-in-arms “who are in different parts of the world, such as Europe and the United States,” to analyze the case of the strange kidnapping of refugee Ronald Ojeda. The virtual appointment lasted more than two hours. The content of the analysis of his talk is kept confidential.
However, among the former Venezuelan soldiers living in the country, there are also different views on the kidnapping of former lieutenant Ronald Ojeda. While some blindly defend the hypothesis that Ojeda was kidnapped in an intelligence operation, others evaluate different options.
“There may be Venezuelan agents in Chile, clearly. But there are several hypotheses as well. And what they say is that among those who took him there was a Chilean, it could also be something else very different and we don’t know. I didn’t know him, I don’t know what he did, if he was just a delivery. Until now there are only assumptions, I have not received information that allows me to presume who could have taken him, so I am more cautious in that,” says a former military man.
There are also views that only point to the most conspiratorial and glamorous suspicion in cinematic history.
“In the case of Ronald, I am not a police officer nor am I an investigator, but in the logic of my intelligence and special operations studies, I can tell you that I am struck by the way they act, how they arrive at his apartment. (…). Undoubtedly that was a perfect and extremely planned operation. (…) It is a message and I am concerned that intelligence agents continue to operate here. Two officers with refuge are seriously thinking about leaving Chile, they do not feel safe, another requested protection in Talca. I don’t fear them, I’m not afraid of them, but others do, and it’s logical,” says another former officer.
