Co-Plotter of 2002 Coup Isaac Perez Recao Fingered as Arms Supplier for Cota 905 Terrorist Gangs
Journalist Eligio Rojas, from Últimas Noticias, published a report describing a scheme for supplying arms to criminal groups in working-class neighborhoods of Caracas. Below is the full journalistic report:
The name of Isaac Pérez Recao turned up in the police investigations as the person who allegedly provided the weapons, explosives, and ammunition to the criminal organization that operated in Cota 905 with branches in La Vega and three other neighboring parishes in the southwest of Caracas, judicial sources revealed.
Pérez Recao was also accused in 2002 of providing weapons for Pedro Carmona Estanga’s security that early morning of April 12, 2002, when the businessman was appointed as president of Venezuela on the fifth floor of Fort Tiuna before a group of military officers. Now the Public Ministry has mentioned him [Pérez Recao] in its statement on July 15 when they presented and charged former deputy Freddy Guevara before the 4th National Court of Antiterrorist Control.
Prosecutors reported that Guevara participated in “destabilizing and terrorist activities which were planned and executed by people who are related to right-wing political and economic sectors, who together with members and representatives of foreign countries, directly support criminal gangs with financing and the supply of military materials,” according to the document.
In this statement, the representatives of the Public Ministry said that the weapons and explosive materials used by the criminal organizations based in La Vega and Cota 905 come from caches (clandestine arsenals) owned by Isaac Pérez Recao, who in turn is financed by the brief de facto president of Venezuela, Pedro Carmona Estanga, now a fugitive from justice.
These war materials were brought into the country under the alleged responsibility of Luis Guillermo Sánchez Silva and Manuel Andrés Baro Freites, trusted personnel of Pérez Recao. The links with the criminal organization of La Vega were allegedly forged by Roberto Patiño and Gilbert Caro, leaders of Popular Will, the party founded by Leopoldo López. The latter had long planned the “Fiesta de Caracas” plan, for which he met in Paris, France, with Iván Simonovis and a Venezuelan banker.
In that Parisian meeting issues that Juan Guaidó had with the aforementioned Fiesta de Caracas were discussed. By virtue of this, López proposed that Simonovis break with Guaidó, an order that he fulfilled on May 17 when he sent a letter to the former deputy where, among other points, he told him that “unity must be a fundamental part of a superior strategy.” Once the equipment was finalized and the plan was designed, its execution began with the entry of weapons, bullets, and explosives into La Vega and Cota 905.
Among the weapons seized in the southwest of Caracas two weeks ago were an AT4 (anti-tank rocket launcher), an RPG-7 (portable anti-tank rocket launcher), an 84 mm Carl Gustaf rocket launcher, a .50 calibre handgun, a .308 sniper rifle, 11 FAL magazines, and 18,380 cartridges for rifles.
Featured image: Peréz Recao, the same man who was denounced for supplying arms to Carmona Estanga in the 2002 coup, is once again accused of supplying arms to criminal gangs in Caracas (Photo: Archive).
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
