Ronald Ojeda Moreno, a lieutenant in the Venezuelan army who escaped from Ramo Verde prison, located on the outskirts of Caracas, in 2017, and who took refuge in Chile because he was an opponent of the Chavista regime, was the victim of a kidnapping this Wednesday ( 21) by military intelligence agents of the Nicolás Maduro dictatorship, as reported by the Venezuelan opposition.
Iván Simonovis, former political prisoner and former security commissioner of the interim government of Juan Guaidó, stated that in the early hours of this Wednesday, employees of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) infiltrated Chilean territory and posed as employees of immigration to capture Ojeda Moreno, who was already in the custody of the Chavista regime. The soldier's family confirmed his disappearance and Chilean authorities began their search.
Ojeda Moreno had received political asylum from Gabriel Boric's government at the end of 2023, after protesting, in 2022, in front of the Presidential Palace of Chile for the release of political prisoners in Venezuela and the end of negotiations between the opposition and Chavismo. The soldier was expelled from the Venezuelan Armed Forces without prior trial, accused of treason and participating in an alleged plan to assassinate Maduro.
The kidnapping of Ojeda Moreno occurs at a time of intensified persecution against dissidents in Venezuela, in a year in which presidential elections are due to be held in the South American country, probably without the main opposition candidate, María Corina Machado, whose candidacy was blocked by the Chavista regime.
In addition to persecuting opponents, the regime expelled the United Nations mission that operated in the national territory, preventing monitoring of the human rights situation. The DGCIM is identified as one of the regime's security bodies that carries out the most crimes against humanity in Venezuela, which include torture, executions and forced disappearances.
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