The kidnapping of a Venezuelan citizen was confirmed this morning, between the communes of Renca and Independencia, in Santiago. The PDI Anti-Kidnapping Special Police Investigations Brigade (BIPE) is in charge of the investigation that was declared secret.
According to preliminary information, the victim is Ronald Ojeda Moreno, a retired lieutenant colonel from Venezuela who is in Chile as a political refugee. On his social network account X, Ojeda Moreno defines himself as “Political Express.”
The point is that it would not be a random event. Iván Simonovis, former Special Intelligence Security Commissioner of the interim government of Juan Guaidó, denounced on his social networks that agents of the Venezuelan General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence infiltrated Chilean territory and kidnapped the deserter.
“In an illegal raid, Alexander Granko plans the kidnapping of a Venezuelan officer in Chile. Early this morning, DGCIM officials posed as Chilean immigration officials and kidnapped Lt. Ronald Ojeda Moreno. His whereabouts are unknown,” Simonovis added, along with a video. Granko is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Bolivarian National Guard.
In an illegal raid Alexander Granko plans the kidnapping of a Venezuelan officer in Chile.
Early this morning, DGCIM officials posed as Chilean immigration officials and kidnapped Lt. Ronald Ojeda Moreno. His whereabouts are unknown. pic.twitter.com/mjjDvqPS4x— Iván Simonovis (@Simonovis) February 21, 2024
According to the Public Ministry, the team of the southern regional prosecutor, Héctor Barros, is leading the investigation into the kidnapping. The Prosecutor’s Office indicates that the Organized Crime and Homicide Teams (ECOH) are carrying out procedures to establish the nature of the incident, whose background is reserved for the moment.
The last thing we know is that a car with evidence of the kidnapping was found on the highway. Meanwhile, the director of the National Migration Service, Luis Thayer, arrived at La Moneda to hold a meeting with the Minister of the Interior Carolina Tohá and undersecretary of the Public Security portfolio Manuel Monsalve.
Ojeda Moreno affirms that in March 2017 he was kidnapped by “the regime.” He alleges that he was transferred to the DGCIM and tortured in Venezuela, but that 249 days later he managed to escape from the Ramo Verde prison.
As stated Radio BiobioDeputy Tomás de Rementería, president of the Foreign Relations Commission, described as “very serious” the possible involvement of a foreign intelligence operation in Chile, and announced that he will request to summon the authorities of the intelligence bodies in the Intelligence Commission of the House and in the Foreign Relations Commission to analyze the situation.
According to the aforementioned media, the Government granted political asylum to Ojeda Moreno at the end of 2023.
In November 2022, Ojeda Moreno demonstrated in front of La Moneda to protest against the negotiations that were being held at that time by the Venezuelan opposition and Chavismo in Mexico. That day, the Venezuelan soldier knelt in front of the Government Palace and displayed a sign in which he also asked for the release of political prisoners in Venezuela.
Collaborators of María Corina Machado add up to 25 days of “forced disappearance”
The defense of the three campaign managers of the Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado, detained on January 23 for their involvement in “conspiracy plots” against the government of Nicolás Maduro, denounced last week that they continue to be “disappeared.” forced.”
In a press conference, lawyer Omar Mora Tosta recalled that it was three days after his “disappearance” when the Public Ministry confirmed that Juan Freites, Luis Camacaro and Guillermo López had been arrested and accused of participating in a conspiracy plot in which They were supposedly in charge of logistics “for the terrorist group that intended to attack several military barracks.”
Since then, the lawyer assured, these people have been missing, and neither their family nor the defense team know where they are being held, despite having visited the places where they could be found.
“We have visited all the institutions, all the police precincts where they supposedly should be detained and they do not appear,” explained Mora, who recalled that, on January 31, a habeas corpus was presented “to protect their human rights, to know where they are. , who has them, under what circumstances they are detained.”
According to the lawyer, the court that was responsible for responding after the presentation of the document, “in accordance with what is established by the Amparo Law,” did not do so, “which is very serious as a precedent, from the legal point of view in Venezuela. ”.
He recalled that, in addition, the relatives of the detainees and the defense itself filed complaints with the Ombudsman’s Office and the Fundamental Rights Prosecutor’s Office to bring the matter to the attention of these authorities, but no response was received either.
On the other hand, he explained that, last Wednesday, the lawyers went to the Second Court, with jurisdiction over terrorism, to obtain information, and there they were informed that they had not been presented at said judicial headquarters, which leaves them -he stressed- ” in an absolute state of helplessness.”
“Not even the authorities who have to account for the protection of the human rights of these citizens have spoken out,” he added.
For his part, Perkins Rocha, another of the defense lawyers, stated that the criminal terrorism courts that were mentioned by the attorney general, Tareck William Saab, when he announced the arrests, “say they do not know the whereabouts” of the three. men.
Given this situation, the lawyers and the family of the detainees demand to see them and check if their human rights are being respected.