The Spanish government yesterday formalized the extradition to the United States of justice of former Venezuelan general Hugo Carvajal, one of the most shady characters to emerge during the more than two decades that Chavismo has been in power. Carvajal was handed over to Interpol, who boarded him on a DEA plane – the US anti-drug agency – bound for New York, where a court accuses him of drug trafficking.
Aged 63 and known as Pollo Carvajal, the ex-soldier held the General Directorate of Military Counter-Intelligence (DGCIM) for a good part of the mandate of the late Hugo Chávez, of whom he was a close comrade-in-arms and whom he supported in the frustrated coup of February 4, 1992 and, like him, also ended up in prison for a short period of time.
After a long judicial journey, the Spanish National Court decided on Tuesday to hand him over immediately to the US courts, after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) dismissed last week the appeal filed by Carvajal against the extradition approved in November 2019.
After Chávez’s death in 2013, Carvajal fell out of favor within the Bolivarian regime. A deputy in the National Assembly between 2016 and 2019, the former military officer questioned President Nicolás Maduró and fell out with Chavismo’s number two, Diosdado Cabello, it is believed that due to differences in clandestine businesses related to drug trafficking to the US in alleged collaboration with factions of the Colombian guerrillas of the FARC and the ELN.
The US justice system has been targeting Carvajal for a long time and, in fact, in 2014 he was arrested at the request of the DEA in Aruba when he was serving as a Venezuelan consul, although he was soon released after negotiations between Chavismo and the authorities of the Caribbean island.
A New York court has accused Carvajal since 2011 of trying to send 5.6 tons of cocaine to the US in 2006, while another Florida court has accused him since 2013 of being an accomplice to several Colombian drug cartels. His participation in the looting of the public oil company PDVSA is also suspected, and torture and other human rights violations are attributed to him during his time in the Venezuelan intelligence services.
In 2019, Carvajal fled Venezuela and traveled to Spain, where he was arrested. He was provisionally released but faced with a new arrest warrant he vanished and spent almost two years on the run until he was located in a Madrid apartment. To stop his extradition, he offered to explain the secrets of Chavismo to the Spanish justice system. He reported that Podemos had been illegally financed by Chavismo but the Supreme Court closed the case, reducing all credibility to Carvajal. However, with his arrival in the US, the question arises as to whether or not the Chicken will pull the blanket again.
