Venezuela-hired lawyers file petition in El Salvador aimed at freeing Venezuelans deported by US
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Lawyers hired by the Venezuelan government filed a legal action Monday in El Salvador aimed at freeing 238 Venezuelans deported by the United States who are being held in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison.
Jaime Ortega, who says he represents 30 of the imprisoned Venezuelans, said they filed the habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court's Constitutional Chamber. He said that by extension they requested that it be applied to all Venezuelans detained in El Salvador.
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24 minutes ago
Former Venezuela spymaster pleads guilty to narcoterrorism charge ahead of trial
MIAMI -- A former Venezuelan spymaster who was close to the country's late President Hugo Chávez pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug trafficking charges a week before his trial was set to begin in a Manhattan federal court. Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal was extradited from Spain in 2023 after more than a decade on the run from U.S. law enforcement, including included a botched arrest in Aruba while he was serving as a diplomat representing current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government. Carvajal pleaded guilty in court to all four criminal counts, including narco-terrorism, in an indictment accusing him of leading a cartel made up of senior Venezuelan military officers that attempted to 'flood' the U.S. with cocaine in cahoots with leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. In a letter this week to defense counsel, prosecutors said they believe federal sentencing guidelines call for Carvajal to serve a mandatory minimum of 50 years in prison to a maximum of life. Nicknamed 'El Pollo,' Spanish for 'the chicken,' Carvajal advised Chávez for more than a decade. He later broke with Marudo, Chávez's handpicked successor, and threw his support behind the U.S.-backed political opposition — in dramatic fashion. In a recording made from an undisclosed location, Carvajal called on his former military cohorts to rebel against a month into mass protests seeking to replace Maduro with lawmaker Juan Guaidó, whom the first Trump administration recognized as Venezuela's legitimate leader as head of the democratically elected National Assembly. The hoped-for barracks revolt never materialized, and Carvajal fled to Spain. In 2021 he was captured hiding out in a Madrid apartment after he defied a Spanish extradition order and disappeared. Carvajal's straight-up guilty plea, without any promise of leniency, could be part of a gamble to win credit down the line for cooperating with U.S. efforts against a top foreign adversary that sits atop the world's largest petroleum reserves. Although Carvajal has been out of power for years, his backers say he can provide potentially valuable insights on the inner workings of the spread of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua into the U.S. and spying activities of the Maduro-allied governments of Cuba, Russia, China and Iran. He may also be angling for Trump's attention with information about voting technology company Smartmatic. One of Carvajal's deputies was a major player in Venezuela's electoral authority when the company was getting off the ground. Florida-based Smartmatic says its global business was decimated when Fox News aired false claims by Trump allies that it helped rig the 2020 U.S. election. One of the company's Venezuelan founders was later charged in the U.S. in a bribery case involving its work in the Philippines. Gary Berntsen, a former CIA officer in Latin America who oversaw commandos that hunted al-Qaida, sent a public letter this week to Trump urging the Justice Department to delay the start of Carvajal's trial so officials can debrief the former spymaster. 'He's no angel, he's a very bad man,' Berntsen said in an interview. 'But we need to defend democracy.' Carvajal's attorney, Robert Feitel, said prosecutors announced in court this month that they never extended a plea offer to his client or sought to meet with him. 'I think that was an enormous mistake,' Feitel told The Associated Press while declining further comment. 'He has information that is extraordinarily important to our national security and law enforcement.' In 2011, prosecutors alleged that Carvajal used his office to coordinate the smuggling of approximately 5,600 kilograms (12,300 pounds) of cocaine aboard a jet from Venezuela to Mexico in 2006. In exchange he accepted millions of dollars from drug traffickers, prosecutors said. He allegedly arranged the shipment as one of the leaders of the so-called Cartel of the Suns — a nod to the sun insignias affixed to the uniforms of senior Venezuelan military officers. The cocaine was sourced by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization and which for years took refuge in Venezuela as it sought to overthrow Colombia's government. Carvajal 'exploited his position as the director of Venezuela's military intelligence and abandoned his responsibility to the people of Venezuela in order to intentionally cause harm to the United States,' DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy said. 'After years of trying to evade law enforcement, (he) will now likely spend the rest of his life in federal prison.'
Politico
32 minutes ago
- Politico
Kilmar Abrego Garcia to remain in jail while attorneys spar whether he'll be swiftly deported
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain in jail for at least a few more days while attorneys in the federal smuggling case against him spar over whether prosecutors have the ability to prevent Abrego Garcia's deportation if he is released to await trial. The Salvadoran national whose mistaken deportation became a flashpoint in the fight over President Donald Trump's immigration policies has been in jail since he was returned to the U.S. on June 7, facing two counts of human smuggling. A federal Judge has ruled that Abrego Garcia has a right to be released and even set specific conditions during a court hearing on Wednesday for him to live with his brother. But Abrego Garcia's attorneys expressed concern that it would lead to his immediate detention and possible deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes also expressed doubts during the hearing about her own power to require anything more than prosecutors using their best efforts to secure the cooperation of ICE. 'I have no reservations about my ability to direct the local U.S. Attorney's office,' the judge said. 'I don't think I have any authority over ICE.' Holmes did not say when she would file the release order for Abrego Garcia, but it will not happen before Friday afternoon. Judge: Government dilemma 'completely of its own making' Abrego Garcia, who was shackled and wearing a red jumpsuit, was expected to be released Wednesday, if only into ICE custody. But the court hearing revealed instead the competing interests between two federal agencies within the Trump administration. Acting U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire has said in court and in filings that one of the reasons he wants Abrego Garcia to stay in jail is to ensure that he remains in the country and isn't deported by ICE. McGuire told the judge during Wednesday's hearing that he would do 'the best I can' to secure the cooperation of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE. But the prosecutor noted, 'That's a separate agency with separate leadership and separate directions. I will coordinate, but I can't tell them what to do.' But Abrego Garcia's attorney, Sean Hecker, countered that the Department of Justice and Homeland Security are both within the executive branch and seem to cooperate on other things. For example, ICE has agreed not to deport cooperating witnesses who agreed to testify against Abrego Garcia. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors had tried to stay Holmes' release order. But it was denied by another federal judge on Wednesday afternoon, who wrote that the government was asking the court to 'save it from itself' in a situation that was 'completely of its own making.' U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr. wrote that federal prosecutors should be making their arguments to DHS, not a court, 'because the Department of Justice and DHS can together prevent the harm the Government contends it faces.' 'If the Government finds this case to be as high priority as it argues here, it is incumbent upon it to ensure that Abrego is held accountable for the charges in the Indictment,' Crenshaw wrote. 'If the Department of Justice and DHS cannot do so, that speaks for itself.' Crenshaw, however, will allow prosecutors to file a brief in support of a motion to revoke the magistrate's release order. An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for July 16. In court on wedding anniversary Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty on June 13 to smuggling charges that his attorneys have characterized as an attempt to justify his mistaken deportation in March to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Those charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. At his detention hearing, Homeland Security special agent Peter Joseph testified that he did not begin investigating Abrego Garcia until April of this year. Holmes, the magistrate judge, wrote in a ruling on Sunday that federal prosecutors failed to show that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or a danger to the community. He has lived for more than a decade in Maryland, where he and his American wife are raising three children. However, Holmes referred to her own ruling as 'little more than an academic exercise,' noting that ICE plans to detain him. It is less clear what will happen after that. Although Abrego Garcia can't be deported to El Salvador — where an immigration judge found he faces a credible threat from gangs — he is still deportable to a third country as long as that country agrees to not send him to El Salvador. Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said during a news conference before Wednesday's hearing that it's been 106 days since he 'was abducted by the Trump administration and separated from our family.' She noted that he has missed family birthdays, graduations and Father's Day, while 'today he misses our wedding anniversary.' Vasquez Sura said their love, their faith in God and an abundance of community support have helped them persevere. 'Kilmar should never have been taken away from us,' she said. 'This fight has been the hardest thing in my life.'
San Francisco Chronicle
32 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Former Venezuela spymaster pleads guilty to narcoterrorism charge ahead of trial
MIAMI (AP) — A former Venezuelan spymaster who was close to the country's late President Hugo Chávez pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug trafficking charges a week before his trial was set to begin in a Manhattan federal court. Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal was extradited from Spain in 2023 after more than a decade on the run from U.S. law enforcement, including included a botched arrest in Aruba while he was serving as a diplomat representing current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government. Carvajal pleaded guilty in court to all four criminal counts, including narco-terrorism, in an indictment accusing him of leading a cartel made up of senior Venezuelan military officers that attempted to 'flood' the U.S. with cocaine in cahoots with leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. In a letter this week to defense counsel, prosecutors said they believe federal sentencing guidelines call for Carvajal to serve a mandatory minimum of 50 years in prison to a maximum of life. Nicknamed 'El Pollo,' Spanish for 'the chicken,' Carvajal advised Chávez for more than a decade. He later broke with Marudo, Chávez's handpicked successor, and threw his support behind the U.S.-backed political opposition — in dramatic fashion. In a recording made from an undisclosed location, Carvajal called on his former military cohorts to rebel against a month into mass protests seeking to replace Maduro with lawmaker Juan Guaidó, whom the first Trump administration recognized as Venezuela's legitimate leader as head of the democratically elected National Assembly. The hoped-for barracks revolt never materialized, and Carvajal fled to Spain. In 2021 he was captured hiding out in a Madrid apartment after he defied a Spanish extradition order and disappeared. Carvajal's straight-up guilty plea, without any promise of leniency, could be part of a gamble to win credit down the line for cooperating with U.S. efforts against a top foreign adversary that sits atop the world's largest petroleum reserves. Although Carvajal has been out of power for years, his backers say he can provide potentially valuable insights on the inner workings of the spread of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua into the U.S. and spying activities of the Maduro-allied governments of Cuba, Russia, China and Iran. He may also be angling for Trump's attention with information about voting technology company Smartmatic. One of Carvajal's deputies was a major player in Venezuela's electoral authority when the company was getting off the ground. Florida-based Smartmatic says its global business was decimated when Fox News aired false claims by Trump allies that it helped rig the 2020 U.S. election. One of the company's Venezuelan founders was later charged in the U.S. in a bribery case involving its work in the Philippines. Gary Berntsen, a former CIA officer in Latin America who oversaw commandos that hunted al-Qaida, sent a public letter this week to Trump urging the Justice Department to delay the start of Carvajal's trial so officials can debrief the former spymaster. 'He's no angel, he's a very bad man,' Berntsen said in an interview. 'But we need to defend democracy.' Carvajal's attorney, Robert Feitel, said prosecutors announced in court this month that they never extended a plea offer to his client or sought to meet with him. 'I think that was an enormous mistake,' Feitel told The Associated Press while declining further comment. 'He has information that is extraordinarily important to our national security and law enforcement.' In 2011, prosecutors alleged that Carvajal used his office to coordinate the smuggling of approximately 5,600 kilograms (12,300 pounds) of cocaine aboard a jet from Venezuela to Mexico in 2006. In exchange he accepted millions of dollars from drug traffickers, prosecutors said. He allegedly arranged the shipment as one of the leaders of the so-called Cartel of the Suns — a nod to the sun insignias affixed to the uniforms of senior Venezuelan military officers. The cocaine was sourced by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization and which for years took refuge in Venezuela as it sought to overthrow Colombia's government. Carvajal 'exploited his position as the director of Venezuela's military intelligence and abandoned his responsibility to the people of Venezuela in order to intentionally cause harm to the United States,' DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy said. 'After years of trying to evade law enforcement, (he) will now likely spend the rest of his life in federal prison.'
