Venezuelan soldier Claims ETA Trained FARC Guerrillas, Set to Testify in Spain
A former Venezuelan soldier, forcibly retired after investigating alleged ties between the Basque separatist group ETA adn the Revolutionary armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), is preparing to reveal potentially explosive details in Spain next month. Milton Gerardo Revilla, with the support of the victims’ association Dignity and Justice (DyJ), aims to reopen a stalled case from spain’s National Court investigating collaboration between the two organizations, dating back to 2000 – a year that saw ETA claim 23 lives, marking its deadliest year as 1992.
Revilla formally offered his testimony to the Central court of Instruction of the National Court in Madrid on november 28th, seeking to provide evidence related to the alleged involvement of high-ranking Venezuelan officials in facilitating the relationship between ETA and FARC. His claims also extend to alleged connections with Hezbollah.
The core of Revilla’s allegations centers on observations made between October and November 2000. He claims to have documented the border crossings of ETA members José Arturo Cubillas Fontan and Joania Chaos, accompanied by venezuelan intelligence officer Commissioner Luis Castillo and FARC members Nelson Pinilla Daza and Aldemar Pinilla Daza, en route to a FARC camp in the Catatumbo region straddling Colombia and Venezuela.
His intelligence work, conducted with the Venezuelan National Guard, reportedly revealed a pattern of “educational exchanges” where ETA operatives trained Colombian guerrillas in explosives and urban terrorism. According to Revilla,this collaboration later expanded in 2002 to include members of the Hezbollah organization.He alleges that ETA member Arturo Cubillas was employed by the government of Hugo Chávez as early as 2005, and that Venezuela provided decades of protection to De Juana Chaos, despite Spain’s 2015 extradition request.
revilla’s monitoring also uncovered evidence suggesting Venezuelan officials were providing identification and cover to members of these terrorist groups, shielding them from scrutiny by both Venezuelan and colombian authorities. He asserts he reported these findings as early as 2002, directly to the Venezuelan Ministry of the Interior, Defense, and even the Presidency. However, he claims operational records were ultimately handed over to the directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), effectively burying the investigation and obscuring the alleged relationship between the Venezuelan Armed Forces, the FARC leadership, and the Venezuelan government.
Further, Revilla testified before the National Court that intelligence gathered identified several ETA members operating within Venezuela, including Goizeder Odraizola, azier Guridi Zaloña, Ignacio Echeverria Landazabal, and Iñaki de Juana Chaos, working directly with Elías Jaua Milano, a Ministry official under Chávez, with the designation of “special agent.” This status, revilla alleges, granted them immunity from legal action and facilitated frequent travel for “political, intelligence and military exchange” with Cuba.
Revilla’s pursuit of justice has come at a personal cost. He was allegedly forced into “forced retirement” from the Venezuelan military in 2000, at the behest of Generals Raúl Isaías Baduel and Jorge Luis García Carneiro, acting on the orders of Hugo Carvajal, whom revilla describes as a key coordinator of drug trafficking and terrorism operations aimed at destabilizing Colombia. He further claims to have been prosecuted and tortured by Carvajal in an attempt to silence him.
In 2011, Revilla was granted protected witness status in National Court case 75/09, concerning the ETA-FARC connection. He is now leveraging Carvajal’s extradition to the United States to push for the case’s reopening, claiming to possess evidence that members of the DGCIM, under Carvajal’s command, actively worked to discredit him as a witness through arbitrary detention, fraudulent prosecution, and torture. He currently resides in the United States.
Revilla’s attempts to testify in Spain have been fraught with obstacles. In July 2011, he alleges he was forcibly removed from the Spanish embassy in Caracas while seeking diplomatic support to appear before the National Court. Subsequently, he claims he faced judicial persecution and torture in Venezuela, orchestrated by Carvajal, to prevent his testimony. He has also filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which remains pending. With Carvajal now in U.S. custody, Revilla is determined to share his knowledge, arriving in Spain between December 3rd and 11th, seeking to finally shed light on a decades-old controversy.
