The former head of Chavista intelligence, former general Hugo “El Pollo” Carvajal, detailed in a letter addressed to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the connection between Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and the Cartel de los Soles, and offered his cooperation to the authorities, as confirmed by his lawyer to the Agency EFE this Thursday (4).
Carvajal, who is awaiting sentencing in a US federal prison after pleading guilty to drug trafficking and illegal weapons possession, said he wants to “redeem himself”.
“I write to atone for my sins by telling the whole truth, so that America can protect itself from the dangers I have witnessed for so many years,” he said.
“I was a direct witness to how Hugo Chávez’s government became a criminal organization that is now commanded by Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello and other high-ranking officials of the regime. The objective of this organization, now known as Cartel de los Soles, is to use drugs as a weapon against the United States,” Carvajal wrote.
The Trump administration considers Maduro the leader of this organization and even classified it as a terrorist group last month.
In the letter, initially shared with the local newspaper The Dallas Express by his lawyer Robert Feitel, “El Pollo” Carvajal claims that the drugs arriving in American cities “through new routes” are not the work of “independent traffickers” but rather of “deliberate policies” by Caracas.
“This plan was suggested by the Cuban regime to (Hugo) Chávez in the mid-2000s and was successfully executed with the help of the FARC, the ELN, Cuban agents and Hezbollah,” Carvajal revealed, explaining how the Venezuelan regime provided “weapons, passports and impunity” to these organizations.
According to Carvajal, Hugo Chávez decided to recruit drug trafficking leaders and arm gangs such as the notorious Tren de Aragua, ordering the expulsion of “thousands of members” from the country, in coordination with the Ministries of the Interior and Penitentiaries, the National Guard and the National Police.
“After Chávez’s death, Maduro expanded this strategy, exporting crime and chaos abroad in order to target Venezuelan political exiles and artificially reduce crime statistics within Venezuela,” revealed Carvajal.
The former general’s letter confirms the accusations made by Trump and his administration against Maduro as “leader of a drug trafficking network”, which they use to justify their threats to expand the military actions of the anti-drug campaign in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific to Venezuelan territory.
“President Trump’s policies against Maduro’s criminal regime are not only justified, but necessary and proportionate to the threat,” Carvajal insisted in his letter, where he also states that former President Joe Biden’s “open borders policy” offered Caracas the “opportunity to send these agents to the United States.”
According to the former general, authorities may underestimate how far Maduro would go to stay in power. “They have contingency plans for all extreme scenarios in order to maintain control,” he said.
Carvajal’s letter coincides with increased tension between Washington and Caracas due to the United States’ military deployment in the Caribbean and direct pressure on dictator Maduro.
