Former military intelligence chief leaves Maduro and recognizes Guaidó

CARACAS.- Military Intelligence Exempt from

Venezuela

and one of the most well-known personalities of the government announced his support for the opposition and called

Nicolás Maduro

a dictator whose close circle is filled with corrupt people who have treated the drug trade and is courting the terrorist group Hezbollah.

In interviews with the New York Times, 58-year-old Hugo Carvajal, a member of the ruling United Socialist Party in Venezuela, urged the other soldiers to break ranks with the president before a likely day of tension on Saturday. Opponents will seek to move humanitarian aid from one border to the other under the blockade ordered by Maduro.

"This has already been more than enough," said Carvajal in a statement and in a video made in Maduro, published today. "You have murdered hundreds of young people on the streets for claiming the rights you stole from them, not to mention all the people killed for lack of medicine and security."

"For the generals, how is it that, having the power to let international humanitarian aid in our country save lives, they decide not to do it, will they be so inhumane, are they so hypnotized? ?", He added.

His statements were made amidst a wave of defections from government officials, including air force officers, diplomats, military attachés. and members of the Bolivarian National Guard. The break with the regime of a man who once protected Maduro's secrets as chief of intelligence increases pressure on the president just three days before the possible confrontation over the pbadage of humanitarian aid to the Colombian border.

Carvajal's accusations also go further: he stated that he was willing to testify against the Maduro government in case he fall. They are also a valuable weapon for the opposition, which has been saying for years that the president's relatives have links to drug traffickers and militia.

On February 18, the government of

Donald Trump

He warned the military officers to leave Maduro no later than the weekend. It was an escalation of Washington's support for

Juan Guaidó

, leader of the opposition who was sworn in as president in charge and promised to deliver tomorrow humanitarian aid of the past, against the will of Maduro. Many supporters of Guaidó say they are ready to break into the border bridge to unblock the blockade.

Carvajal, who retired from intelligence services in 2012 after nearly ten years of service, said in an interview with the internal workings of a government in which he claimed that drug trafficking and Corruption was common and treated by high profile personalities like Néstor. Reverol, Minister of the Interior; Tareck El Aissami, Minister of Industry and Production who was previously Vice President, and Maduro himself.

"The one who fights the drug in the end also ends up being trafficked," he said about Venezuelan officials accused or sanctioned by the United States.

Carvajal himself was detained for drug trafficking in US investigations; He avoided being extradited from Aruba for these charges in 2014 and was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for helping Colombian guerrilla groups to smuggle cocaine.

In interviews, Carvajal acknowledged that he had had contacts with both worlds. But he added that any dealings with drug traffickers, including the Venezuelan drug king Walid Makled, had been concluded for investigative purposes as head of the military intelligence branch.

He said he met with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2001, but that he had only done so to begin negotiations with the government as part of the kidnapping case. 39, a Venezuelan businessman, travel approved by the presidents of both parties. Colombia as Venezuela.

Carvajal pointed to other top government officials, such as Reverol, the interior minister, accused by the US of allegedly helping drug traffickers and quashed investigations when it came to the case. he was director of the National Office of Fight against Drugs (ONA).

Carvajal recalled an incident that occurred in 2012, when he said that he was investigating a luxury ranch in Venezuela owned by Makled. Carvajal said his team intercepted a cargo of 400 kilos of cocaine that arrived at the ranch on a small plane.

After the confiscation of drugs, according to Carvajal, he would have received an unusual call informing him that the army had determined that the cargo did not contain narcotics, which he interpreted as an attempt by the government for Makled to recover his burden.

Carvajal said that he could cancel the decision to return the shipment. He said that El Aissami and Reverol were "directly responsible" and accused men of receiving bribes from ignoring drug trafficking.

Carvajal also denounced Reverol for allowing drugged planes to land on board while he was running ONA. He said that in 2012, he had called Reverol to report a suspicious aircraft flying over Caracas at low altitude, but that Reverol had done nothing and that the plane was continuing its course.

"I'm sure it was a drug overload," Carvajal said.

In 2017, the Treasury Department established sanctions against El Aissami, then vice president, after calling him a "well-known Venezuelan drug dealer".

Carvajal said that El Aissami had also sought out alliances with Hezbollah, the militant militant Shiite organization. He said that during his trip to Iran with El Aissami in 2009 on behalf of Hugo Chávez, El Aissami – who was then Minister of the Interior – asked to make a stop in Syria, where he had friends. and his family.

According to Carvajal, during this stop, they met a representative of Hezbollah and a Venezuelan diplomat who sympathizes with the Lebanese militants. Aissami proposed a plan for activists to visit Venezuela to work with FARC fighters, according to Carvajal.

He added that the Hezbollah operator had given three rifles to El Aissami and that he had given one to Carvajal. During the interview, Carvajal showed the rifle and his pbadport bearing seals in Iran and Syria corresponding to the dates indicated.

Carvajal said that he did not know the identity of the person of Hezbollah, but had identified the Venezuelan diplomat as being Ghazi Nasr al Din, exempt from business at the Venezuelan Embbady in Damascus, the Syrian capital.

In 2008, Al Din was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department to be a "Hezbollah sympathizer" who "facilitated the movement of members of the group to and from Venezuela." He is also wanted by the FBI for these charges.

Carvajal said he objected to the project of inviting Lebanese militants to Venezuela directly with Maduro, who was chancellor at that time. But Maduro, who was in favor of the United States, seemed to support the proposal, said Carvajal.

Maduro denied that his government has ties to Hezbollah.

The New York Times