The video from the security cameras in which you see three subjects with uniforms of the Chilean Investigative Police, with their faces covered, helmets and bulletproof vests, moments before kidnapping former Venezuelan military officer Ronald Ojeda in an apartment in Santiago, was published on the social network Ivan Simonovis.
His post quickly set off alarm bells among the authorities and became the first indication of an investigation that strains diplomatic relations between Chile and Venezuela and raises the question of how Venezuelan intelligence operates outside its borders in the persecution of opponents.
Simonovis, a criminal investigator and former political prisoner from Venezuela, spoke with EL TIEMPO from the United States and reveals the details he obtained, first-hand, about this case.
When you post the kidnapping video on your social media, you accuse Alexander Granko of being behind it. Who is he and what would his role be?
Alexander Granko is the director of Special Operations of the Dgcim (Directorate of Military Counterintelligence in Venezuela). He became absolutely famous for participating in an operation where they murdered a dissident and several people who were in a house in a sector of Caracas called El Junquito. In this operation, which he directed, he used more than 300 troops, weapons of war and missile launchers. They destroyed the house and They murdered five people. One of them was a police officer who was the leader of that group, Oscar Pérez, and it was known that he had demonstrated against the regime.
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After this, in each and every one of these raids that are carried out to arrest people and disappear them there is Alexander Granko. It is number one on the list of main violators of human rights in Venezuelais being investigated by the International Criminal Court and everyone knows that he is a person who is dedicated to this type of activities and is the one who does the dirty work of the Venezuelan government.
In an illegal raid Alexander Granko plans the kidnapping of a Venezuelan officer in Chile.
Early this morning, DGCIM officials posed as Chilean immigration officials and kidnapped Lt. Ronald Ojeda Moreno. His whereabouts are unknown. pic.twitter.com/mjjDvqPS4x— Iván Simonovis (@Simonovis) February 21, 2024
Is there any precedent that verifies that Alexander Granko entered Chile and that he was behind the kidnapping of the military man (r) Ronald Ojeda?
No, I do not believe that he went to Chile, I believe that he directed the operation. He is in charge of it and, as a manager at that level, he does not need to go to Chile. He is a lieutenant colonel and surely planned and provided the necessary logistics, but going to Chile I don't think, you wouldn't be exposed to so much. In fact, they call him man of a thousand faces because he spends his time changing his appearance, his haircut, he dresses as a man, a woman, etc.
This is Alexánder Granko, a senior official of the DGCIM-Venezuela, who is related to the kidnapping of Lieutenant Ronald Ojeda, in Santiago, Chile. He was linked to Operation Gedeón (known as the Junquito Massacre), which ended the life of Óscar Pérez and his group… https://t.co/oN5VnO1LFw pic.twitter.com/0eNsWFjdgZ
— Carla Rois Hughes (@carlarois19844) February 22, 2024
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How do Venezuela's intelligence bodies currently operate?
Look, the Dgcim has been working outside the borders of Venezuela for years: in Colombia, in Ecuador, in Peru and in Chile. Basically, their job is the identification and location of political dissidents, soldiers or ordinary citizens who have had to leave the country due to political issues, and they need to have them marked to know what they are doing or who they are meeting with. There is even a very special program called “Nautilus”, a project that is being developed in Venezuela and is made up of a large number of military and civilian personnel who posed as the opposition. They were sent to different countries and they infiltrated Venezuelan groups to be able to obtain information about who they were, if they were planning something, if they were involved in some type of activity that harmed the regime.
Recently with the Petro government, there is the complaint of a lieutenant who had been kidnapped in Colombia, in Cúcuta, and transferred to Venezuela against his will and appeared in Caracas, but The Petro government played dumb, and never said anything at all. Let's hope this is not the case in Chile.
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Is there new information about the kidnapping of Ronald Ojeda in Chile?
No. Unfortunately, the information has not flowed at the speed that one would like it to flow. The source that gives me knowledge of this entire event is through a colleague of Lieutenant Ojeda, Lieutenant Rodríguez Araña, who resides here in the United States. I really don't know Lieutenant Ronald, I know Lieutenant Rodríguez and he is the one who notifies me, because Ojeda's wife calls him, they are colleagues from the Military Academy.
They are part of a group of Venezuelan military officers who are dissidents. In Chile it is definitely being handled as a kidnapping case, since a yellow alert was made public through the Interpol offices. That is, it is assumed that it is a transnational crime.
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Is there any indication that, after the kidnapping in Chile, this soldier has already been returned to Venezuela?
This is what Lieutenant Rodríguez tells me, that Lieutenant Ojeda's sister informed him.
Regarding the particular case of Ronald Ojeda, what other details are known about him?
What I understand is that he is part of a group of junior officers, they are those with lower ranks than captain, who They had expressed themselves against the dictatorship, they had taken their own path and were discharged from the Armed Forces. They were imprisoned in a military prison, they escaped and even, in that escape process, one of them died.
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Ojeda is part of the list of 33 members of the military forces who were linked to the so-called 'Operation White Bracelet', which sought to dismantle an alleged coup against Nicolás Maduro. What do you know about this case?
To be honest with you, the only thing I know about this operation is what the regime has said, they talk about an operation where a large number of officers are involved and in fact they even mentioned some journalists, because this is something that comes with detention. coincidentally from an officer who was part of them, named Heredia. And, now, more and more people are coming out.
I don't know the details of what that operation was. But, in these 25 years of dictatorship in Venezuela, we have already heard that story. We have already seen this novel on several occasions, that is, this is nothing new. I was a political prisoner in Venezuela, I was imprisoned for 15 years until I escaped in 2019, and I already know this story by heart.
When you were imprisoned, did you at any point go through the Ramo Verde prison, which is where it is understood that this soldier who was kidnapped in Chile escaped?
Yes, of course, I spent nine years in the Sebin (Bolivarian National Intelligence Service) and the rest were in the Ramo Verde military prison.
Can you describe this prison a little and how someone can escape from this place, which is understood to be maximum security?
It is a five-story building that is in a sector in the state of Miranda, a mountainous sector, you have to take a road. But, the escape did not occur from prison, it occurred during a transfer that was made, that is what I understand. They had to transfer these officers, I don't know if it was to the court or some medical issue, and well, they saw the opportunity and escaped. One of them died in the escape and then each one took a different path to different parts of Latin America and others came to the United States.
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Finally, do you think that this kidnapping could have any intention in the midst of this electoral campaign, which has also been very marked by violence against the opposition?
Absolutely, if there is one thing they are experts at, it is putting on a Hollywood show, creating conspiracies everywhere. The only conspirators here are themthey came to the government for conspiring, they are a group of criminals.
Maduro and his 12 closest associates have a requirement by the United States authorities for their participation in drug trafficking, terrorism and money laundering. Rewards between 5 and 15 million dollars are offered for each of them, depending on their position.
In the last 25 years, either because there is an election year or because they are not doing well politically, then they invent and victimize themselves, Let's say it has been the common practice of the regime in all these years.
ANDREA AGUILAR CÓRDOBA
SPECIAL FOR THE WEATHER
SANTIAGO, CHILE
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