Cliver Alcalá and Nicolás Maduro: irreconcilable enemies united in the same judicial case

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
• Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)

Maduro responds to accusations of drug terrorism

(CNN Spanish) - -Independence and socialist homeland, my commander in chief, good afternoon - greeted Clíver Alcalá.

"We will live and win, Mr. General Cliver Alcalá," replied President Hugo Chávez.

-I would like to inform you that 12,400 socialist, revolutionary, anti-imperialist, Chavista compatriots, equipped with high-tech war equipment, are attending the present military civic parade on February 4, 2012 ...

Retired General of the Venezuelan Army Clíver Alcalá at a press conference in Caracas on July 18, 2016. File image. (Credit: JUAN BARRETO / AFP via Getty Images)

The applause echoed in the tribune where Chávez was. It was the last time that the seriously ill president attended the reminder event of the military coup that he had starred in 1992, when he tried to overthrow then-President Carlos Andrés Pérez.

READ: Venezuelan Attorney General summons to declare Juan Guaidó for alleged assassination plot

It was also the most remembered intervention of Alcalá as an active officer, when he commanded the IV Armored Division, the most powerful unit of the Venezuelan Army.

In a subsequent report, the non-governmental organization Citizen Control stated that those words, spoken over a war tank, were "one of the public expressions of propaganda, militancy or political proselytizing carried out by members of the Military High Command in 2012".

Citizen Control then cited the articles of the Venezuelan Constitution that specified the apolitical nature of the Bolivarian National Armed Force.

But that was more than eight years ago.

Today Alcalá is faced with the leadership that replaced Chávez in power and manifests himself as one of his most bitter adversaries.

However, fate has reunited him with his former comrades in the same court case.

The questioned president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and Alcalá were charged Thursday in a court in the southern district of New York with four charges: drug trafficking conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and mechanisms. destructive.

READ: Without Maduro and without Guaidó: Pompeo reveals new government transition plan for Venezuela

Both the Venezuelan government and the retired military have rejected the accusations.

In a statement, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza called the charges "miserable, vulgar and unfounded."

Alcalá Cordones told CNN that he is not afraid of being prosecuted for drug trafficking allegations. "I have done nothing wrong and I am sure this is all a mistake," he added.

Maduro appeared on Venezuelan public television hours after the Justice Department, after making the accusations public, offered US $ 15 million for information leading to his capture or conviction.

On his Twitter account, Maduro wrote:

The U.S. government in an extravagant, extreme and vulgar action, he made a series of false accusations, putting a price on the heads of revolutionaries who are ready to fight them in all areas and continue defeating them. Maximum Moral There Is Here! pic.twitter.com/BEHNvugfLj

- Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) March 27, 2020

The document by the US authorities ensures that the alleged activities related to drug trafficking that would involve Maduro and Alcalá Cordones began in 1999 and have lasted until 2020, but Alcalá moved away from Maduro's orbit much earlier. The accusation also includes the president of the National Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello; the former director of Military Intelligence, Hugo Carvajal, and the Colombians Luciano Martín Arango, alias “Iván Márquez”, and Seuxis Paucias Hernández Solarte, alias “Jesús Santrich”, who have rejected all the allegations.

Along with several former Chavez ministers, Alcalá was grouped in the Platform for the Defense of the Bolivarian Constitution, which criticizes Maduro, whom they accuse of deviating from the original project of the so-called Bolivarian revolution.

READ: Venezuelan Attorney General will request the extradition of Clíver Alcalá Cordones

Until this Friday, March 27, Alcalá lived in Barranquilla, Colombia, from where he made a surprising confession on a radio program and on his social networks, once the accusation of the US Department of Justice was made public.

That statement referred to an operation that the Metropolitan Police of Santa Marta, also in Colombia, made public through a press release on March 25. That day, officials from that body seized weapons and military equipment inside a vehicle that was traveling along the Colombian Caribbean coast.

The authorities report indicates that in the suitcase of a car they found 26 assault rifles without brand or series, caliber 556, American-made, AR-15, 36 rifle butts, 28 two-sight night sights, nine one-sight night sights unbranded eye, eight rifle silencers, 21 rifle sights for Sigsauer rifle, 24 rifle units for Sparg rifle, four night rifles with no brand, 30 sigth mark brand single point laser sights, 14 Steiner brand lancers, 7 Sniper brand lancers, two Motorola xpr3500 communication radios, 43 Motorola brand batteries with their respective clicks, 15 earth colored Heds brand tactical military helmets, three Crye Precision brand bulletproof vests.

Following the Justice Department press conference in which the charges against Maduro and 14 other Venezuelan officials and former officials of the Venezuelan regime were announced, Alcalá gave an interview to Colombian radio La W.

In that conversation, Alcalá took responsibility for that armament and the logistics that his transfer to Venezuela would entail, adding that with all this he had planned an operation against Maduro that would have the endorsement, through a signed contract, of the president of the National Assembly Juan Guaidó, who is recognized by Washington and 60 other governments as interim president of Venezuela.

READ: Who are the 15 Venezuelans accused of corruption, money laundering and narcoterrorism by the US government?

In a telephone conversation with CNN, Alcalá reiterated that he was part of this plot against Maduro.

For his part, Guaidó responded to CNN through his press headquarters that he never signed any contract and that he does not know Alcalá.

On Friday Alcalá decided to turn himself in to the Colombian authorities. An official with knowledge of the case informed CNN that this retired Venezuelan military officer left that same day from Barranquilla to New York as an extradite. Washington was offering $ 10 million for information leading to his capture.

Following the statements, Venezuela's attorney general, Tarek William Saab, decided to start an investigation. On Friday, he charged him with treason, illicit trafficking in weapons of war, terrorism, attempted assassination, and association with crimes. But this time, the Justice Department has won the race for the Maduro regime.

Nicolás Maduro