The Attorney General of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, declared this Thursday that the intelligence work of the Public Ministry (MP) revealed the links between the Venezuelan radical opposition and three key subjects of organized crime in the country, as well as their involvement in the post-election violence witnessed between July 29 and August 2. During his statements, he presented the audiovisual testimonies of the accused criminals:
Subject 1: a.k.a. “Valle”
In the first instance, the former prisoner of the Rodeo-II penitentiary center, Luis Humberto Yáñez Martínez, a.k.a. Valle, who was charged with kidnapping and rape, recounted his previous exchanges with Leopoldo López and the ex-convict, Gilber Caro, the latter resides in the United States. At first, he confessed to having known Caro for 20 years. Later, he revealed that when Yáñez and other prisoners were on a hunger strike in 2017, they asked Caro for support, who, in turn, called López by phone. The opposition leader regularly financed both prisoners.
Later, in 2019, Caro was released from prison. Later, on July 27, Yáñez contacted him through the Instagram social network; and Caro “responded that everything is fine, that everything is going to change, that when he was the next penitentiary minister, he was going to help me,” according to what Yáñez quoted him as saying.
He also stated that Caro assigned him a series of missions; the first consisted of sending young people to burn warehouses of the National Electoral Council (CNE), located in Filas de Mariche, Miranda state; The second mission was based on recruiting inmates to generate riots in denial of the results issued by the CNE regarding the elections of July 28; the third involved recruiting people to shoot firearms at the Bolivarian National Guard and the Bolivarian National Police. Likewise, he revealed that these actions were financed by the team of María Corina Machado and Leopoldo López.
Subject 2: a.k.a. “Santa Rosa”
The criminal imprisoned in the Rodeo-II Penitentiary Center, Ronald Fernando Mendoza Castillo, a.k.a. Santa Rosa; was also recruited to participate in violent and terrorist activities. Mendoza was prosecuted in 2016, in the state of Monagas, for the crime of homicide. The criminal revealed that Yáñez contacted him on July 31; to offer him help to encourage riots in prisons and vandalism on public roads. In addition, he revealed that these actions were financed by Caro.
Subject 3: a.k.a. “El Ratón”
A former prisoner of the San Juan de los Morros Penitentiary, Nelson Alejandro Barreto Reyes, a.k.a. “El Ratón” (The Mouse), was arrested in 2016 for drug trafficking, aggravated criminal association, qualified homicide for frivolous motives, and in 2017 he was charged with kidnapping. Barreto was also contacted by Yáñez on July 31, in addition to being linked by Caro. In this regard, he testified that on that day, a.k.a. Valle contacted him to recruit people to cause disturbances in the streets in support of Maria Corina Machado.
Evidence presented:
Prosecutor Saab stated that the MP has a 17-minute video call between Caro and Yáñez, where they talk about the meeting that Caro held with María Corina Machado’s team, to discuss and plan the subversive actions that were unleashed on July 29. In addition, the criminal leader was a member of a WhatsApp group in support of the candidacy of Edmundo González, of the Democratic Unitary Platform.
On the other hand, he detailed that Yáñez received from Caro a sum of money amounting to 20,000 dollars, and which was given to him from last November 2023 until today, while Leopoldo López gave him 5,000 dollars in December 2023.
Finally, the head of criminal matters office announced the indictment for drug trafficking of a fourth subject, José Luis Miranda Consuegra, of Colombian nationality, who was arrested in Petare, Miranda state; for transporting four thousand units of the captagon stimulant drug; which he intended to supply to the protesters of new journeys of violence sponsored by the radical opposition.