Former Venezuelan general Clíver Alcalá confessed last week before a court in New York that he had delivered heavy weapons, among them two grenade launchers, Rodrigo Londoño (alias Timochenko) and Iván Márquez, members of the extinct Farc guerrilla.
The foregoing is clear from a trill by journalist Joshua Goodman, from the AP Agency, who obtained the transcript of a hearing on June 30 where Alcalá pleaded guilty to providing material support to the Farc, an organization that was considered terrorist by the US at the time of the crime.
At the hearing, Alcalá is asked if he handed over weapons, among them 20 grenades and two grenade launchers to the Farc leaders.
(Also read: The cases of fraud in Miami against Colombians seeking to migrate to the United States)
“Yes, sir. Two 3.5 grenade launchers,” replied the former general.
Then they ask him if both were for Luciano Marín (Iván Márquez), to which Alcalá replies that one was for Márquez and the other for Timochenko.
Londoño demobilized after the 2016 peace agreement and is currently a congressman for the Comunes party. Márquez, who also laid down his weapons, abandoned the process and fled to Venezuela from where he founded a new revolutionary group.
At last week’s plea hearing in NYC, former Venezuelan General Cliver Alcala acknowledged providing grenade launchers to Colombian rebel leaders Ivan Marquez and Timochenko on orders of Hugo Chavez’s government.
See transcript👇 pic.twitter.com/9rPUsaUdGE
— Joshua Goodman (@APjoshgoodman) July 6, 2023
The events to which Alcalá refers occurred starting in 2006 when Hugo Chávez was president of that country.
in the audience, the former general also says that he used his power to prevent the arrest of the leaders of the Farc and it provided them with support knowing that it was a group that the US had declared terrorist and that they were involved in drug trafficking.
Alcalá retired from the Venezuelan Army in 2013 and became a strong critic of Chavismo and President Nicolás Maduro.
(You can read: Democrats reject a bill that seeks to defer aid for Colombia)
In 2020, however, he was accused along with Maduro and others of being part of a drug network that sent cocaine to the US.
That same year, Alcalá turned himself in to the DEA in Colombia and since then has been facing the judicial process that came to an end last week. In his guilty plea, Alcalá does not recognize the charges of drug trafficking but only those related to the support of the Farc, something he says he did on the instructions of his superiors.
“General Alcalá accepted a widely negotiated plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to misdemeanors not contained in the indictment against him: provide material support to the Farc when he was a Venezuelan general. This resolution does not include any narcotics crime,” the law office that was in charge of his defense said in a statement.
(Keep reading: Has the Petro Presidency derailed? This says an analysis by the Bloomberg agency)
The agreement is now in the hands of the judge who must assess it and determine his sentence.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
WEATHER CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON
ON TWITTER: @SERGOM68
#Chavista #general #acknowledges #delivered #weapons #Iván #Márquez #Timochenko