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Featured image: Jorge Rodriguez, Venezuelan National Assembly's President, showing information about a NGO that helped criminal gangs recently dismantled in Tejerias, Aragua state. The NGO name is Pies Descalzos, a name similar to a NGO set by Colombian pop star Shakira, connections seams unlikely. Photo: Wilmer Errades / Ultimas Noticias.
This Thursday, February 17, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly (AN), Jorge Rodríguez, held a press conference at which he denounced the financing by the Colombian government and the Venezuelan extreme right of criminal gangs intending to destabilize the country.
He reiterated that Venezuela has denounced, on 24 occasions, attacks carried out from Colombia in Venezuela. He pointed out that evidence was delivered between 2018 and 2022 to international bodies such as the United Nations, demonstrating that Colombia’s intelligence agencies, Armed Forces, and police forces were used to attack Venezuela.
Rodríguez mentioned that Colombian drug trafficking mafias have infiltrated Venezuelan criminal gangs. “Now a pattern has been added to it, which is to protect and equip criminals with weapons in the regions of the country,” Rodríguez said.
“The forces that should preserve peace in Colombia are used to violate Venezuela,” Rodríguez stated. “They protect, care for, train, and prepare logistics for gangs of kidnappers, assassins, and terrorists operating in the territory of Venezuela.”
Criminal gangs dismantled by the recent Operation Cacique Guaicaipuro II received payments from the Venezuelan extreme right as well, he noted.
“Sooner rather than later, all these bands orchestrated by Iván Duque and Juan Guaidó will be neutralized,” Rodriguez assured.
“The drug trafficker known as ‘Pepero’ confessed that both the Wilexy gang, as well as that of El Koki and El Conejo, were financed by the extreme right.” Rodríguez said. “They went to Colombia every 15 days to train in the art of war.” At the press conference, a video was shown of the criminal confessing these facts.
In this regard, Rodríguez specified that in 2015, during the parliamentary elections, these criminal groups received direct orders from the former opposition deputy Juan Guaidó and from the extreme right, specifying that they should intimidate the population to refrain from voting.
He assured that very soon it will be shown where the resources to maintain these criminal gangs come from. “These were organized criminal groups with assets from drug trafficking and the Colombian government, it was not ordinary crime,” Rodríguez said.
Similarly, he said that an NGO called Pies Descalzos provided resources for criminal gangs in Tejerias, in Venezuela’s Aragua state. He mentioned that it is unlikely that the organization is linked to that of the well-known Colombian singer Shakira’s NGO, also named Pies Descalzos. However, the coincidence raised some suspicions among Venezuelan authorities.
Jorge Rodríguez emphasized that “all the weapons of crime that exist in Venezuela, and of paramilitary groups and drug traffickers, come from Colombia.” He explained that the United States delivers the weapons to the Colombian government, and they are then distributed among criminal groups such as El Koki’s or the Tren de Aragua.
Rodríguez reported that he requested a meeting with the Minister for the Interior, Remigio Ceballos, to learn about the actions of the Venezuelan state against these groups, among which is Operation Cacique Guaicaipuro II, recently deployed in the state of Aragua.
Responding to a question by a journalist about the possible involvement of local or regional authorities in these criminal organizations, Rodríguez had this to say: “Whoever commits a crime will be caught. Iron hand.” Rodríguez made the statements in reference to President Maduro’s most recent call to fight corruption and deviations among PSUV cadres. “We lifted the immunity of a deputy,” recalled Rodríguez. “The same will happen to any person who, using a public post, has protected these criminal gangs.”
Evidence and confessions
Rodríguez revealed some facts that confirm the allegations of the paramilitary training of Venezuelan criminals. “Gilbert Caro was a recruiter for criminal gangs,” Rodríguez said. “Check the participation in La Vega in 2015. There, their involvement fell due to the fear of gangs.”
Rodríguez mentioned the Venezuelan army defector apprehended during Operation Indio Guaicaiputo II, Stalin Páez, who was part of El Koki’s gang and confessed that he had trained in Colombia. “He was a murderer stationed in Las Tejerías, he was shooting on the highway,” Rodríguez noted. “This man acknowledged that they took him to Colombia to receive training, then they sent him back to Venezuela.”
He showed a video where María Inés Reyes Silva, partner of El Conejo, said that she kept El Conejo’s apparel, and that he was looking for her to travel to Colombia for 15- to 20-day periods in order to receive training and return to Las Tejerías in Aragua state.
Featured image: Jorge Rodríguez, Venezuelan National Assembly president, showing information about a recently dismantled NGO that helped criminal gangs in Tejerias, Aragua state. The NGO is Pies Descalzos, a name similar to a NGO set up by Colombian pop star Shakira, although a connections seems unlikely. Photo: Wilmer Errades/Ultimas Noticias.
(Últimas Noticias) by Narkys Blanco
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
