ISSUES....
Inside,
confidential, off the record
Chávez's
own Montesinos
For
those who believe that war means tanks, planes and guns the current
heightened tension between Colombia and Venezuela is not a war…at
least for now. But history proves that war can be as deadly (i.e.
effective) when waged in the economic arena or in the court of
public opinion. It is now clear that Colombia has chosen to respond
to Hugo Chávez's political antics, economic retaliation
and military threats by releasing lethal information about Caracas's
cozy relationship (i.e. partnership) with terrorists and drug
traffickers.
The
article below, which appeared in SEMANA magazine in Bogota over
the weekend, describes, with lurid details, the activities of
Venezuela’s head of Military Intelligence (an obvious oxymoron
in today’s upended Bolivarian Armed Forces). General Hugo
Carvajal Barrios, head of the DIM since 2004, is compared, at
least in the title, with Vladimiro Lenin Montesinos of Peruvian
infamy. They both shared a penchant for the illegal and had a
soft spot for drug lords; but General Carvajal is no “mastermind” according
to retired and active duty fellow officers that reacted to PMBComments’s
earlier distribution of the Spanish version of this article.
Carvajal is described as “mediocre” and “very,
very low key”; “the guy graduated in 1981, 59th out
of 73 in his class at the Military Academy”; as one who “would
have never made the rank of General prior to Chávez”;
as one who “was picked because he would do as commanded
by the only person to whom he reported: Hugo Chávez”.
So this is no rouge spymaster manipulating his way to absolute
power, this is an instrument of a VERY troubled and dangerous
man who is cornered and about to make THE mistake of his life.
War
by ALL other means has begun between Venezuela and Colombia,
and we will soon see the consequences of this historical madness.
Pedro
M. Burelli
Chávez’s
very own Montesinos
People
who have Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s ear can
be counted on the fingers of one’s hands. And from that select
group, one of the closest, most loyal and most trusted is General
Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios: the brains behnd the Venezuelan
intelligence apparatus. The matter would be of no greater importance
for Colombia were it not for the fact starting a few years ago,
and especially in 2007, General Carvajal’s name became sullied
by extremely serious cases that constitute an assault against Colombia’s
national security.
Two
intelligence agencies from countries with vast experience in
matters of espionage have what they consider to be highly reliable
information that Carvajal has provided protection and identification
documents for Colombian guerrillas and narcotraffickers on Venezuelan
territory—including the recently assassinated narcoguerrilla
boss Wilber Varela, known as ‘Jabón’, meaning ‘Soap’ (see
following article). And if that were not enough, these agencies
are targeting the general because of his alleged involvement
in the torture and murder of two members of the Colombian Army
who, according to information from Bogotá, were in hot
pursuit of guerrillas who were using Venezuela as a safe haven.
Most
paradoxical of all is that Hugo Carvajal is a man practically
unknown in Colombia, despite the fact that he is head of Venezuela’s
General Office of Military Intelligence—Dirección
General de Inteligencia Militar—(DGIM), an organization
of a military nature that has equal standing with the Defense
Ministry and the Interior Ministry (Justice) and receives orders
from, answers to, and is solely accountable to Hugo Chávez,
President of the Republic. “These days the DGIM is a seven-headed
monster that maintains a relatively low profile but its power
is immense. It would be as if in Colombia there existed an organization
under the command of a single man, which administered the Intelligence
apparatus of the Military Forces, the Police, the DAS—Departamento
Administrativo de Seguridad (Colombian intelligence), and the
CTI—Cuerpo Técnico de Investigaciones (attorney
general’s investigative corps),” thus stated to SEMANA
an official of Venezuela’s DGIM who requested anonymity.
Why
is this being discovered now? What is going on behinds the scenes?
SEMANA spoke with four active officers from different intelligence
organizations and from Venezuela’s public force and they
explained that the information began to leak out as General Carvajal,
through irregular actions, proceeded to create hostility among
sectors of the Venezuelan National Armed Force—Fuerza Armada
Nacional (FAN) and other security organizations.
Witnesses
state that aside from his relationship with the guerrilla forces,
Carvajal has given great emphasis to counterintelligence and
has committed excessive acts that range from unjustifiable witch
hunts to going so far as to torture members of his own National
Armed Forces simply on grounds of suspicion of disloyalty. Many
of the rank and file within the Military Forces who are in disagreement
with this situation have decided to file complaints or furnish
information in exchange for rewards.
Therefore,
it is not surprising that dailies such as El País in Spain
and The Washington Post in the United States have published reports
in recent months concerning ties between the Venezuelan military
and guerrillas of the FARC. As early as October of 2005 SEMANA
revealed that there were connections between two generals in
the Venezuelan National Guard and the Colombian mafia, a revelation
that led the Office of the Vice President of Venezuela to announce
a formal investigation.
But
none of the revelations surfacing up until now is as serious
and worrisome as the information made available to this magazine
concerning General Carvajal. SEMANA tried unsuccessfully to elicit
a response from members of the DGIM in Caracas. This magazine
also spoke with the chargé d’affaires at the Venezuelan
Embassy in Bogotá trying to obtain some kind of official
response from the Venezuelan government in answer to the denunciations,
but as of the deadline for this edition this was not possible.
He
spoke with “Grannobles”
Hugo
Carvajal was born April 1, 1960 in Puerto La Cruz, in eastern
Venezuela During the last eight years he has had ties with the
General Office of Military Intelligence and in July of 2004 he
was appointed by Chávez as director of that organization.
Despite his tremendous power, he is a man who maintains a very
low profile. Known by the nickname of ‘El Pollo’,
meaning ‘Bantam Rooster’, because of his physical
appearance, some of the activities in which he has been involved
speak for themselves.
An
active officer of the Venezuelan National Guard, who spoke with
SEMANA under the condition that he remain anonymous, revealed
that sometime in the middle of May of 2006 General Carvajal held
a meeting with Germán Briceño Suárez, alias ‘Grannobles’,
an important leader of the FARC and a brother of ‘Mono
Jojoy’, meaning ‘Monkey Jojoy’. “The
meeting was held at a farm called Corocito, located in San Silvestre,
in the Venezuelan state of Barinas. Present at that place were
personnel from the National Guard, the DISIP (Venezuelan intelligence
services), and the DGIM (Venezuelan military intelligence). It
was a group of about 20 persons, although there were more along
the security perimeter assigned to the National Guard. Present
from the guerrilla forces was Briceño (‘Grannobles’),
accompanied by a small group of between five and seven irregular
combatants. Afterwards two Venezuelan National Armed Force (FAN)
helicopters arrived with another 21 guerrilla fighters,” thus
affirmed the officer who says he had been present at the meeting.
According
to him, General Carvajal and guerrilla fighter Briceño
talked about strategies for political, military and economic
coordination. Carvajal has agreed to furnish logistical support
and food for the military fronts that are deployed along the
border. “Briceño asked Carvajal for protection from
the Venezuelan DISIP for a group of 21 guerrilla fighters who
arrived on the helicopters, since they operate in different parts
of Venezuela. He asked the general to furnish those persons with
identification documents as well as credentials accrediting them
as members of the DISIP or of the DGIM in order to be able to
move about at ease within Venezuelan territory,” thus stated
the officer to SEMANA.
One
of the guerrilla fighters who enjoy these privileges is Yeison
Armando Escobar, alias ‘Cocorinche’, a member of
Frente 45 of the FARC. “In October of last year ‘Cocorinche’ was
one of those assigned by the FARC to personally coordinate with
General Carvajal matters of security and logistics for transporting
Iván Márquez to the presidential palace of Miraflores
for a meeting with President Chávez,” thus affirmed
to SEMANA the Venezuelan National Guard officer, who furthermore
states that this subversive person has DISIP and DGIM identification
cards, as well as a permit to carry weapons.
Another
one of the officers who made himself visible to SEMANA, a commissar
from Venezuela’s Office of Intelligence and Prevention
Services—Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia
y Prevención (DISIP), or Political Police, added that
this type of official documents was also given to Didier and
Yesid Ríos. “They have been living on Margarita
Island since October of 2007 and there they can rely on permanent
security provided by members of the DGIM, assigned by General
Carvajal.” Known in Colombia as the ‘Los Ríos
Clan’, Didier and Yesid are part of a family who for years
worked for the commander of the Frente 16 of the FARC, Tomás
Medina Caracas, alias ‘Negro Acacio’, and in charge
of shipping drugs and laundering assets.
Didier, Yesid and six other members of the clan escaped into Venezuela in 2001
after the offensive initiated by the Colombian Army against ‘Negro Acacio’ and
which was known as Operation Black Cat. In November of 2005 the DAS (Colombian
intelligence) and the Colombian Attorney General raided properties the ‘Los
Ríos Clan’, administered for the FARC, and which had a value of
30 billion Colombian pesos.
This
is not the first time General Carvajal’s name appears connected
with providing protection and official Venezuelan intelligence
organization credentials to guerrilla fighters and narcotraffickers.
SEMANA had access to the identification cards that were issued
to Hermágoras González, a Colombian narcotrafficker
wanted on extradition charges by the United States and who several
years ago found refuge in the Venezuelan state of Barinas and
is involved in drug trafficking there.
The
name of this Colombian narcotrafficker emerged into public light
in October of last year in a Washington Post report where he
appears as one of the biggest exporters of cocaine to North America
and Europe. Hermágoras, who is a link to Colombian drug
traffickers, among them the murder victim Varela, moves about
freely in Venezuela with two official identification documents.
One accredits him as a commissar of the DISIP and the other as
an intelligence agent of the National Guard. A report prepared
by the National Guard itself, to which this magazine had access,
gives an account of the irregularity (see photos and facsimile). “The
order to issue official documents to Hermágoras González
as well as to other narcotraffickers and guerrilla fighters was
given by General Carvajal to Pedro Luis Martín, who was
director of intelligence at the DISIP and is now one of the general’s
confidants,” so stated the DISIP officer who spoke with
SEMANA.
To
this evidence one can also add a recording in the hands of foreign
agencies that reportedly demonstrates that General Carvajal tipped
off narcotraffickers so that they were able to evade an important
anti drug operation. “On September 5, 2007 an operation
was to be carried out in order to seize 2,900 kilos of cocaine
that was hidden in a warehouse in the city of Puerto La Cruz
and was going to be exported to Europe. The drugs belonged to
several Colombian narcotraffickers and a percentage of the shipment
belonged to the Frente 10 of the FARC. There was an interception
made of a call placed by General Carvajal to members of the Venezuelan
National Guard and the DGIM, who were guarding the shipment,
alerting them as to the imminent raid. The drugs were moved to
a different location and the raid was thwarted,” so stated
to SEMANA a member of a foreign intelligence service that was
coordinating the operation.
An
order for assassinations?
General
Carvajal’s name has been linked to other even more complex
matters. In July of last year, the general was tipped off by
his trusted men at the DISIP about the effective collaboration
being provided to the DEA by an informant by the surname of Rodríguez,
whereby an important Venezuelan businessman close to the Caracas
government would be compromised stemming from his ties with narcotraffickers. “In
the United States there was already underway a judicial proceeding
against this businessman that would allow prosecution of a network
of narcotraffickers and money launderers that operates in Colombia
and Venezuela Rodríguez was a key to the case. After being
tipped off that he was collaborating with us, Carvajal issued
the order to a group of men from the Scientific, Penal and Criminal
Investigation Corps—Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas,
Penales y Criminalísticas (CICPC), who then kidnapped,
tortured and murdered Rodríguez,” so reported to
SEMANA an agent of the DEA assigned to Venezuela. According to
him, the case is known to Colonel Néstor Reverol, head
of the Venezuelan National Drug Enforcement Agency—Oficina
Nacional Antidrogas (ONA).
Even
though all the above mentioned acts reveal very serious actions
by General Carvajal, perhaps the most serious evidence has to
do with the role played by the head of the DGIM in the torture
and murder of two members of the Colombian Army while they were
on Venezuelan territory. In April of last year SEMANA revealed
the story of the murder of Captain Camilo González and
Corporal Gregorio Martínez. These military men infiltrated
into Venezuelan territory in order to find Colombian guerrilla
fighters operating in that country. But they were discovered
and brutally tortured and murdered at the National Guard headquarters
located in Santa Bárbara, in the Venezuelan state of Zulia. “The
ones who discovered the Colombian military men and realized they
were conducting an intelligence operation were officers from
the Santa Bárbara Police. They captured them and took
them to the headquarters of National Guard Air Support Detachment
Number 1. From there the capture was reported to General Carvajal
who then sent a colonel from the DGIM. He was the one who took
charge of torturing the Colombians for several days. During some
of the interrogations there was a guerrilla fighter present they
tell us was from the ELN. After extracting all the information
from them, the colonel called General Carvajal to find out what
to do with them. Carvajal gave the order to execute them. He
did that because he knew that, since they were involved in espionage
activity, the Colombian government could not protest and, furthermore,
it was a clear message to the Colombian military as to what awaited
them should they be discovered over here (in Venezuela).” This
sordid account was narrated to SEMANA by an officer of the Venezuelan
National Guard who was performing his duties at the garrison
where the military men were murdered.
The
officer affirmed that the colonel who was put in charge of carrying
out the tortures is a total confidant of General Carvajal. “He
(the colonel) worked in the Venezuelan city of San Cristóbal
in the year 2005 and there became a key DGIM contact with the
Colombian guerrillas,” so states the National Guard officer. “He
was always closer to the ELN than to the FARC, so much so that
people from the ELN referred to him as ‘Comandante Raúl’.” Intelligence
agencies are targeting General Carvajal the same way they once
targeted Vladimir Montesinos: the man who focused all the power
of the intelligence apparatus on Peru while at the same time
he was selling weapons to the FARC. Without a doubt, the evidence
against General Hugo Carvajal is of such gravity that the Venezuelan
government will have to provide some clarification.
Pedro
M. Burelli is
a financial consultant, a former member of PDVSA board of director
and ex head of JPMorgan Capital Corporation – Latin America.
SEMANA is
a Colombian weekly news magazine. Petroleumworld does not necessarily share these views.
Editor's
note: This commentary was originally published by Pedro M. Burelli's
blog : http://pmbcomments.blogspot.com, on Feb. 4th . Petroleumworld
reprint this article in the interest of our readers.
http://www.semana.com/wf_InfoArticulo.aspx?IdArt=109223
Petroleumworld
News 02/05/08
ISSUES....
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