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The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Former Venezuelan intelligence chief pleads guilty to US drug charges
A former top Venezuelan military intelligence chief has pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court to narco-terrorism conspiracy, drug-trafficking and weapons charges, piling further US pressure on the government of Nicolás Maduro. Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, AKA 'El Pollo' or 'The Chicken', was the director of Venezuela's military intelligence under presidents Hugo Chávez and Maduro. On Wednesday, days before his trial was set to begin, he pleaded guilty to four federal counts, related to accusations that he helped lead a drug-trafficking group within the Venezuelan government. 'Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios was once one of the most powerful men in Venezuela. For years, he and other officials … used cocaine as a weapon – flooding New York and other American cities with poison,' said US attorney Jay Clayton. Carvajal turned against Maduro in 2019 and supported a failed coup that year led by the opposition leader Juan Guaidó. Maduro stayed in power but the Trump administration at the time recognized Guaidó as the legitimate leader of the country. Despite his opposition to Maduro, Carvajal was already under investigation by the US government: in 2020, the justice department released an indictment against him and other top Venezuelan leaders – including Maduro himself – accusing them of narco-terrorism crimes and of running the Cartel of the Suns. He was eventually extradited to the US from Spain in 2023. The US indictment alleges that from 1999 through 2020, Maduro, Carvajal and top government officials 'participated in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy' between the Cartel of the Suns and the former Colombian rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), to traffic cocaine to the US. The Farc was previously classified as a terrorist organization by the US government before most of its members laid down their weapons in a historic 2016 peace process. Although the US government claims the Cartel of the Suns is a structured and government-run drug-trafficking group, analysts claim that it is more of a 'network of networks' of various drug-trafficking groups protected by elements within the Venezuelan state. The Miami Herald, citing unnamed sources, reported that Carvajal was potentially collaborating with the US government to provide information about Maduro's drug-trafficking activities, the Tren de Aragua gang and Venezuela's ties to Iran. Details of his potential collaboration may be revealed during his sentencing hearing in October. He is facing life in prison for each count. Co-defendants in the Cartel of the Suns case include Maduro, the Venezuelan interior minister and two former Farc leaders –including one who was killed in a mysterious operation by the Colombian military. As one of the last Latin America-related acts of the Biden administration this January, the US government raised its bounty for Maduro and his interior minister to $25m, related to the narco-terrorism case. One of Carvajal's co-defendants was sentenced last year to more than 21 years in prison. Cliver Alcalá , a former Venezuelan general who opposed Maduro, pleaded guilty in 2023 for providing support to the Farc. This case has the potential to uncover details of US operations in Venezuela, including information about alleged US-backed attempts to oust Maduro. In a letter to the New York court, Alcalá's attorneys have claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency, Drug Enforcement Administration, and national security council were aware of a fumbled 2020 plot to overthrow Maduro. That failed plot, deemed the Bay of Piglets, was foiled by Venezuelan security forces. Government officials arrested a number Venezuelan dissidents and two American former Green Berets, working as mercenaries for Silvercorp, a US security firm.
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Former Venezuelan intelligence chief pleads guilty to US drug charges
A former top Venezuelan military intelligence chief has pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court to narco-terrorism conspiracy, drug-trafficking and weapons charges, piling further US pressure on the government of Nicolás Maduro. Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, AKA 'El Pollo' or 'The Chicken,' was the director of Venezuela's military intelligence under presidents Hugo Chávez and Maduro. On Wednesday, days before his trial was set to begin, he pleaded guilty to four federal counts, related to accusations that he helped lead a drug-trafficking group within the Venezuelan government. 'Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios was once one of the most powerful men in Venezuela. For years, he and other officials… used cocaine as a weapon — flooding New York and other American cities with poison,' said US attorney Jay Clayton. Carvajal turned against Maduro in 2019 and supported a failed coup that year led by opposition leader Juan Guaidó. Maduro stayed in power but the Trump administration at the time recognized Guadió as the legitimate leader of the country. Despite his opposition to Maduro, Carvajal was already under investigation by the US government: in 2020, the justice department released an indictment against him and other top Venezuelan leaders – including Maduro, himself – accusing them of narco-terrorism crimes and of running the Cartel of the Suns. He was eventually extradited to the US from Spain in 2023. The US indictment alleges that from 1999 through 2020, Maduro, Carvajal and top government officials 'participated in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy' between the Cartel of the Suns and the former Colombian rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), to traffic cocaine to the US. Farc was previously classified as a terrorist organization by the US government before most of its members laid down their weapons in a historic 2016 peace process. Although the US government claims the Cartel of the Suns is a structured and government-run drug-trafficking group, analysts claim that it is more of a 'network of networks' of various drug-trafficking groups protected by elements within the Venezuelan state. The Miami Herald, citing unnamed sources, reported that Carvajal is potentially collaborating with the US government to provide information about Maduro's drug-trafficking activities, the Tren de Aragua gang and Venezuela's ties to Iran. Details of his potential collaboration may be revealed during his sentencing hearing in October. He is facing life in prison for each count. Co-defendants in the Cartel of the Suns case include Maduro, the Venezuelan interior minister and two former Farc leaders –including one who was killed in a mysterious operation by the Colombian military. As one of the last Latin America-related acts of the Biden administration this January, the US government raised its bounty for Maduro and his interior minister to $25m, related to the narco-terrorism case. One of Carvajal's co-defendants was sentenced last year to more than 21 years in prison. Cliver Alcalá , a former Venezuelan general who opposed Maduro, pleaded guilty in 2023 for providing support to Farc. This case has the potential to uncover details of US operations in Venezuela, including information about alleged US-backed attempts to oust Maduro. In a letter to the New York court, Alcalá's attorneys have claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency, Drug Enforcement Administration, and National Security Council were aware of a fumbled 2020 plot to overthrow Maduro. That failed plot, deemed the Bay of Piglets, was foiled by Venezuelan security forces. Government officials arrested a number Venezuelan dissidents and two American former Green Berets, working as mercenaries for Silvercorp, a US security firm.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Former Venezuela spymaster pleads guilty to narcoterrorism charge ahead of trial
Former Venezuelan military spy chief, retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal, walks out of prison in Estremera on the outskirts of Madrid, on Sept. 15, 2019. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File) MIAMI — A former Venezuelan spymaster who was close to the country's late President Hugo Chávez pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug trafficking charges a week before his trial was set to begin in a Manhattan federal court. Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal was extradited from Spain in 2023 after more than a decade on the run from U.S. law enforcement, including a botched arrest in Aruba while he was serving as a diplomat representing current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government. Carvajal pleaded guilty in court to all four criminal counts, including narco-terrorism, in an indictment accusing him of leading a cartel made up of senior Venezuelan military officers that attempted to 'flood' the U.S. with cocaine in cahoots with leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. In a letter this week to defense counsel, prosecutors said they believe federal sentencing guidelines call for Carvajal to serve a mandatory minimum of 50 years in prison to a maximum of life. Nicknamed 'El Pollo,' Spanish for 'the chicken,' Carvajal advised Chávez for more than a decade. He later broke with Maduro, Chávez's handpicked successor, and threw his support behind the U.S.-backed political opposition — in dramatic fashion. In a recording made from an undisclosed location, Carvajal called on his former military cohorts to rebel a month into mass protests seeking to replace Maduro with lawmaker Juan Guaidó, whom the first Trump administration recognized as Venezuela's legitimate leader as head of the democratically elected National Assembly. The hoped-for barracks revolt never materialized, and Carvajal fled to Spain. In 2021 he was captured hiding out in a Madrid apartment after he defied a Spanish extradition order and disappeared. Carvajal's straight-up guilty plea, without any promise of leniency, could be part of a gamble to win credit down the line for cooperating with U.S. efforts against a top foreign adversary that sits atop the world's largest petroleum reserves. Although Carvajal has been out of power for years, his backers say he can provide potentially valuable insights on the inner workings of the spread of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua into the U.S. and spying activities of the Maduro-allied governments of Cuba, Russia, China and Iran. He may also be angling for Trump's attention with information about voting technology company Smartmatic. One of Carvajal's deputies was a major player in Venezuela's electoral authority when the company was getting off the ground. Florida-based Smartmatic says its global business was decimated when Fox News aired false claims by Trump allies that it helped rig the 2020 U.S. election. One of the company's Venezuelan founders was later charged in the U.S. in a bribery case involving its work in the Philippines. Gary Berntsen, a former CIA officer in Latin America who oversaw commandos that hunted al-Qaida, sent a public letter this week to Trump urging the Justice Department to delay the start of Carvajal's trial so officials can debrief the former spymaster. 'He's no angel, he's a very bad man,' Berntsen said in an interview. 'But we need to defend democracy.' Carvajal's attorney, Robert Feitel, said prosecutors announced in court this month that they never extended a plea offer to his client or sought to meet with him. 'I think that was an enormous mistake,' Feitel told The Associated Press while declining further comment. 'He has information that is extraordinarily important to our national security and law enforcement.' In 2011, prosecutors alleged that Carvajal used his office to coordinate the smuggling of approximately 5,600 kilograms (12,300 pounds) of cocaine aboard a jet from Venezuela to Mexico in 2006. In exchange he accepted millions of dollars from drug traffickers, prosecutors said. He allegedly arranged the shipment as one of the leaders of the so-called Cartel of the Suns — a nod to the sun insignias affixed to the uniforms of senior Venezuelan military officers. The cocaine was sourced by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization and which for years took refuge in Venezuela as it sought to overthrow Colombia's government. Carvajal 'exploited his position as the director of Venezuela's military intelligence and abandoned his responsibility to the people of Venezuela in order to intentionally cause harm to the United States,' DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy said. 'After years of trying to evade law enforcement, (he) will now likely spend the rest of his life in federal prison.' Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister in New York contributed. Joshua Goodman, The Associated Press
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Former Venezuela spymaster pleads guilty to narcoterrorism charge ahead of trial
MIAMI (AP) — A former Venezuelan spymaster who was close to the country's late President Hugo Chávez pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug trafficking charges a week before his trial was set to begin in a Manhattan federal court. Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal was extradited from Spain in 2023 after more than a decade on the run from U.S. law enforcement, including included a botched arrest in Aruba while he was serving as a diplomat representing current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government. Carvajal pleaded guilty in court to all four criminal counts, including narco-terrorism, in an indictment accusing him of leading a cartel made up of senior Venezuelan military officers that attempted to 'flood' the U.S. with cocaine in cahoots with leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. In a letter this week to defense counsel, prosecutors said they believe federal sentencing guidelines call for Carvajal to serve a mandatory minimum of 50 years in prison to a maximum of life. Nicknamed 'El Pollo,' Spanish for 'the chicken,' Carvajal advised Chávez for more than a decade. He later broke with Marudo, Chávez's handpicked successor, and threw his support behind the U.S.-backed political opposition — in dramatic fashion. In a recording made from an undisclosed location, Carvajal called on his former military cohorts to rebel against a month into mass protests seeking to replace Maduro with lawmaker Juan Guaidó, whom the first Trump administration recognized as Venezuela's legitimate leader as head of the democratically elected National Assembly. The hoped-for barracks revolt never materialized, and Carvajal fled to Spain. In 2021 he was captured hiding out in a Madrid apartment after he defied a Spanish extradition order and disappeared. Although Carvajal has been out of power for years, his backers say he can provide potentially valuable insights on the inner workings of the spread of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua into the U.S. and spying activities of the Maduro-allied governments of Cuba, Russia, China and Iran. Gary Berntsen, a former CIA officer in Latin America who oversaw commandos that hunted al-Qaida, sent a public letter this week to Trump urging the Justice Department to delay the start of Carvajal's trial so officials can debrief the former spymaster. 'He's no angel, he's a very bad man,' Berntsen said in an interview. 'But we need to defend democracy.' Carvajal's attorney, Robert Feitel, said prosecutors announced in court this month that they never extended a plea offer to his client or sought to meet with him. 'I think that was an enormous mistake,' Feitel told The Associated Press while declining further comment. 'He has information that is extraordinarily important to our national security and law enforcement.' In 2011, prosecutors alleged that Carvajal used his office to coordinate the smuggling of approximately 5,600 kilograms (12,300 pounds) of cocaine aboard a jet from Venezuela to Mexico in 2006. He allegedly arranged the shipment as one of the leaders of the so-called Cartel of the Suns — a nod to the sun insignias affixed to the uniforms of senior Venezuelan military officers. ___ Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister in New York contributed.
Fox News
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Maher shreds Sean Penn for meeting with Castro, Chavez after actor criticizes HBO host's Trump meeting
HBO host Bill Maher accused actor Sean Penn of being a hypocrite this week after the actor slammed the comedian's meeting with President Donald Trump. During the latest episode of Maher's "Club Random" podcast, the comedian and political commentator called out Penn's meetings with world dictators when the actor pointed out that he wouldn't have gone to dinner with Trump like Maher had. "Really, you meet with f---ing Castro and Hugo Chavez, but not the President of the United States?" Maher asked. The disagreement came while the two discussed Maher's meeting with the president at the White House in April. Maher has maintained that the meeting with Trump was "gracious and measured" and suggested the president was a different man in private than he appears on camera. Penn met with late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in Caracas in 2007. According to Chavez at the time, he and the actor discussed "why the (U.S.) empire attacks Chavez so much." The actor also met with late Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro years prior, as well as Raul Castro in 2008. Maher began by asking Penn whether he believed having dinner with Trump was the right move. The actor said he could see the reasons why Maher would go to dinner with Trump, but admitted he wished the dinner was perceived as "less successful" for the president than it was, or that Maher had less praise for Trump's demeanor during their evening together. Maher disputed that point, stating, "Well, it was less successful because I never stopped saying all the things I've always said about him. It would have been successful if he had somehow seduced me into supporting him. So it wasn't successful." "The only reason I would not accept an invitation is because I see, I see no – it's a long flight," Penn said, struggling to give his answer. Maher cut him off mid-thought, bringing up his meetings with the Latin American dictators. Penn defended himself, saying there were good things that came out of those meetings. "Yeah, I saw good results come out of some of those things in terms of the agendas that I had… I just personally wouldn't trust anything that was said in the room, including the personality," he added, appearing to suggest taking Trump at face value was beyond the pale. Maher shot back, "It's not a matter of trusting it. It's a matter of seeing it, a matter of experiencing it, a matter of knowing it. It's like saying, 'I don't want this medical test because, you know, I don't want to know.' I want to know." "Fair enough," Penn replied.
