The name of Hugo Carvajal has once again appeared on the most wanted list in the United States. The trusted man of the deceased former president Chavez is now included on a list of wanted men announced by U.S. authorities on March 26th, which also includes Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, Tareck El Aissami, Maikel Moreno, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, and 11 others.
For the retired general, Carvajal distanced from the chavism government in 2019. Now, the U.S. State Department is offering 10 million dollars rewards to those who provide information to anyone who indicates where he is.
Carvajal escaped from Spanish authorities in November 2019, shortly after his extradition to the United States, which expects to prosecute him for drug trafficking. His whereabouts are unknown.
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It seems like distancing himself from Maduro did nothing to erase his political past and his alleged ties to drug trafficking and guerrilla groups in Colombia.
Who is Hugo, el Pollo Carvajal?
The key man in military intelligence and counter-intelligence for almost a decade in Venezuela broke relations with the Nicolas Maduro regime in February 2019.
Retired army general and National Assembly deputy, a member from the party founded for Chavez, also known as El Pollo – The chicken- he decided to side with Guaido, whom he recognized as interim president
In his anti-Maduro, the pro-Guaido video said: “Juan Guaido! Here is one a soldier for the cause of freedom and democracy, to be useful in the fight to re-establish the constitutional order, to call free elections, and listen to the will of the Venezuelan people.”
Hugo Chavez: the beginning
During his studies at the Military Academy, Carvajal became friends with Hugo Chavez, who was his instructor. Later, he accompanied in the coup d’état of February 4, 1992.
His story in the intelligence service began with the arrival in power of the charismatic man from Barinas state. He was Chavez’s director of the Military Intelligence Direction -DIM- now the General Directorate of Military Counter-Intelligence, between 2004 and 2011, recalls Poderopedia.
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Before that, Carvajal was head of investigations at the DIM in 2002 and worked at the Sectorial General Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services -Disip in Spanish- in 2004.
“He will go to fulfill other functions,” said Hugo Chávez on the night of December 25, 2011, after removing Carvajal from the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate and thanking him for his services, Tal Cual, Digital media, reported.
He also founded and directed the National Office against Organized Crime and Terrorist Financing from 2012 to 2013, according to its website.
But Carvajal took over the reins of the Military Counterintelligence Direction in April 2013, at Maduro’s request, until January 2014. Shortly after him leaving that work, violent student demonstrators broke out like never before since 1999, keeping for three months Venezuela in stitches and losing Maduro the National Assembly in 2015.
Drug trafficking and guerrilla
Carvajal was the first Chavez official sanctioned in 2008 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for his alleging ties to drug trafficking and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
