Originally Syndicated on June 12, 2024 @ 1:47 am
The U.S. Department of Justice released this on April 8: “U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated, “As a senior member of the Venezuelan military and a part of the Cártel de Los Soles, Clíver Antonio Alcalá Cordones and his associates aimed to use cocaine as a weapon while assisting the FARC in arming its members and transporting large quantities of drugs to the United States. Alcalá Cordones undermined the essential institutions of his own nation as he facilitated the influx of cocaine into this country — but that is no longer the case.
He will now serve over twenty years in a U.S. prison.” Cliver Alcalá was a key figure in the inner circle established by Hugo Chavez to manage international affairs. The Bolivarian revolution openly aligned itself with criminal and narcoterrorist groups. Alcalá’s involvement with Colombia’s FARC has been well-known among Venezuela analysts for many years; however, his actions were not isolated. Alcalá was not a particularly progressive military leader who believed that aiding FARC was his destiny or a route to his own enrichment.
Instead, Alcalá’s actions were but part of a policy, a strategy formulated by Hugo Chavez and carried through by Nicolás Maduro, that exists to help, fund and support chavismo’s partners in every way possible :
“The level of penetration of FARC in Venezuelan public institutions and officialdom is shockingly disturbing. But above all else, it shows why Hugo Chavez, in clear violation to UN resolutions, keeps siding with FARC: he sees the terrorist group as a useful partner both for internal and foreign policy agendas. As early as 1992-1994 Chavez was on the FARC’s take, that’s four full years before his election. So committed seem Chavez to the FARC’s cause, that at one point he offered Venezuelan oil, to be traded by the rebels in the spot market, and with resulting income MANPADS could be purchased to Aleksander Lukashenko’s regime.”
In Colombia, no other group rivals FARC when it comes to receiving substantial support from Venezuela. This includes weapons, military gear, operational assistance, intelligence, citizenships, financial backing, business initiatives, safe havens, land, communication systems, and laundering services. Essentially, FARC has been granted carte blanche to function within Venezuelan borders.
A key figure facilitating communication between FARC and the chavismo regime was Piedad Córdoba, the disreputable narcosenator known for connecting Alex Saab with Maduro. Córdoba and Saab introduced Bogotá’s Cartel leader, German Rubio (also known as Alvaro Pulido Vargas), into their Venezuelan operations. It is important to note that Alcalá’s actions in undermining his nation’s institutions were not merely his own choices but were dictated by state policy directed from Miraflores. Alcalá, along with other notorious figures like Hugo Carvajal and Diosdado Cabello, had little autonomy in these matters. For example, granting Venezuelan citizenship to FARC’s Rodrigo Granda in July 2004 was a directive from the highest levels, executed by a young Tareck el Aisami, who was then in charge of ONIDEX.
The intertwining of chavismo’s illicit activities cannot be underestimated; it is a mistake to assume that Alcalá was acting independently. The evidence that led to Alcalá’s 21-year sentence for aiding FARC and engaging in drug trafficking could just as easily implicate Maduro and Cilia Flores, unless the case involving the narco nephews has been overlooked. Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, should pursue a similarly harsh sentence for Hugo Carvajal.
The financial resources underpinning these activities and the strategies for laundering enormous illicit gains have long been connected to PDVSA, whose CEOs have, curiously, not been tied to the Cartél de los Soles—except for el Aisami. Meanwhile, Maduro has instructed his corrupt Attorney General to showcase el Aisami once more in a farcical anti-corruption investigation. However, what the Attorney General isn’t disclosing is that many of the corrupt players utilized by el Aisami, such as Alex Saab, remain active and are generating substantial revenues from crude oil trading operations for Delcy, Jorge Rodriguez, and Maduro.
The establishment of a criminal link between FARC’s narcoterrorist actions and chavismo by the U.S. Department of Justice is a positive stride forward, as the Venezuelan “justice system” has yet to initiate any inquiries into FARC’s ally, the Cartél de los Soles. It is possible because since 1999 the bosses have been in Miraflores, and that adds weightage to evidence both in Caracas and Washington.
