PANAMA CITY.- Hugo “el Pollo” Carvajal was so influential during the presidency of Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) that he was also known in the circles of the Venezuelan revolutionary power as “ “the other Hugo.”
As the star of the “Commander in Chief” Major General of Intelligence and Counterintelligence began to decline, Nicolas Maduro He did not hesitate to threaten the Dutch island of Aruba with armed force to free it from the trap set there by the United States when he served as Venezuelan consul.
When he returned to Caracas, Pollo was welcomed with the full Bolivarian liturgy as if he were a national hero. “He is alive and free thanks to the miracle in which we live permanently. A good Venezuelan, a worker.”Maduro congratulated himself after sending his wife Cilia Flores to meet him at Maiquetía airport.
All of these words were swallowed up by Maduro five years later, when Carvajal decided to flee to Spain with all his secrets. Now Chávez’s favorite soldier has resurfaced and is becoming living proof of the existence of the Cartel of Suns and the complicity of the feared Aragua train with Caracas.
“I write to atone for my sins by telling the whole truth so that the United States can protect itself from the dangers that I have witnessed for so many years,” he surprised in a shocking letter to him Donald Trump. Carvajal confirmed already known facts about the Sun Cartel, but added the novelty that it was the Cubans who proposed the plan to flood the United States with cocaine.
It was a similar strategy to that developed by the Colombian drug trafficker in the last century. Carlos Lehder, the co-founder of Medellin Carteldetermined to send coca to the United States to destroy a “decadent society.”
Carvajal also revealed the Bolivarian power’s strategy of using criminal gangs like the Tren de Aragua to defend its interests. He put it together and financed it from the start.
“President Trump’s policies against Maduro’s criminal regime Not only are they justified, Rather, they are necessary and proportionate to the threat. “You may even be underestimating what the regime is willing to do to stay in power,” The “personal witness” warned of how the Sun Cartel turned cocaine into a deadly weapon against the United States. with the help of Cuban agents and the cooperation of the Colombian guerrillas of the FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
The significance of what El Pollo said immediately surpassed any other previous statement in the middle of the story Operation Southern Lance against the Chavismo drug trade. “This letter is a strategic move that changes the entire relationship between Washington and Caracas. It is the operational memory of a drug state, the black box of the Cartel of the Suns,” said analyst Antonio de la Cruz.
“Casus belli”, the most daring term, invented immediately when adding the spying of Russian and Cuban agents on US territory, also denounced by El Pollo. “What Carvajal denounces is so serious that it allows the Trump administration to confirm the threat that Chavismo poses to its interests.” Internationalist Luis Peche told LA NACION.
“For Maduro, Carvajal’s letter embodies the worst-case scenario: the enemy within. It is a pure product of the system, its creator. He was her guardian and today he is her biggest threat,” De la Cruz said.
The great paradox for Venezuela’s democratic cause is that within the United States through powerful lobbies and also through collaborative and ultra-moderate opposition positions Attempts were made to deny the existence of the Sun Cartel. In doing so, one forgets the existing case law on this topic since the beginning of the century.
“The most compelling court case resulting in criminal charges in the Southern District of New York federal court in 2020 These included Nicolás Maduro himself, the now convicted General Clíver Alcalá and Carvajal. “This allegation is supported by investigations that explicitly date back to 1999, the date from which an intrigue between the above-mentioned group and the FARC is pointed out,” he said. to LA NACION Nizar El Fakih, lawyer and director of the Washington Consulting Firm.
“Due to the complexity and magnitude of the case These criminal acts were led by multiple prosecutors from different jurisdictions in different administrations. including the Southern District of Florida, the Southern District of New York and the District of Columbia, and included the participation of then-Attorney General of the United States William Barr,” he added.
Another group of judgments covers two decades of activity by the Cartel de los Soles network. Chavismo functioned as for years criminal structure This eventually led to the institutions being flooded to invade the state.
“In the case of Carvajal and his recent statements, several key factors in the American criminal justice system must be taken into account. Technically, the underlying process has already culminated in a determination of his guilt, as he pleaded guilty in June.” However, no conviction has yet been pronounced. In the time that elapses between an admission of guilt and a conviction, The person can continue to cooperate with prosecutors and authorities and receive possible sentence reduction benefits in return. Although these details are not known in the Carvajal case, it is common that this is the current scenario and could be the reason for his public letter,” El Fakih said.
The four federal charges against Carvajal could result in life in prison. According to the letter: “We crossed a Point of no returnwhere much of the United States’ credibility is at stake. For me, the question is not whether it will attack, but what it will attack,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Center for Strategies and International Studies.