2024-01-17 04:32:25
The United States Prosecutor’s Office asked the court of the Southern District of New York to sentence General (r) Clíver Alcalá, who in the past was one of the highest-ranking officials of the Chavista regime in Venezuela, to 30 years in prison, for his drug and weapons deals with the FARC guerrilla.
Alcalá has been in a US cell since 2020, when he was extradited on a DEA plane that left Bogotá.
As part of a submission process, he had signed a preliminary plea agreement, in which he accepted two charges: 1). Providing, aiding and abetting the provision of material support or resources to an international terrorist organization; 2). Receiving and transferring firearms and ammunition, knowing that they would be used to commit the federal crime of terrorism.
In the first decade of the 21st century, Alcalá was one of the officers favored by then-president Hugo Chávez, and later by Nicolás Maduro.
According to the file he is pursuing in the United States, he took advantage of the influence of his position in the Military Forces to traffic cocaine and weapons with the FARC guerrilla.
Alcalá acknowledged that he delivered batches of weapons to “Iván Márquez” and “Timochenko”, members of the Secretariat of the insurgent group, and that he allowed planes loaded with cocaine to take off from the Maiquetía airport.
He also explained that he manipulated other members of the Military Forces so that they would not attack the Colombian insurgents on Venezuelan soil.
For this cooperation, his defense asked the court for a sentence of six years in prison, which contrasts with the three decades that the Prosecutor’s Office intends to obtain.
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