The Colombian media reveal details of the Venezuelan narcostate

This was in 2007. Now it should be much more intense

Venezuela is experiencing a dramatic change, from being a petrostate into being a narcostate. As Moises Naim has said it is no longer a matter of drug activity taking hold of the government but a matter of the government taking hold of the drug activity.

El Espectador, Colombian daily newspaper (“The contacts of the drug trafficking in Venezuela”,  by Elber Gutierrez Roa, July 6, 2012) , describes how the pressure of the Colombian armed forces obliged the guerrillas, criminal gangs and narcotraffickers to diversify their activities. For ten years now, says the report, Venezuela has become an important center of distribution, following the route Margarita-Puerto Rico and others to reach Africa and Europe. This activity became so lucrative, says the report, that other groups appeared in the scene, including Mexican and Dominican Republic cartels.  But how did these groups become inserted into the activity? The report of LA FM  summarized below indicates how they made contacts among the highest levels of the Venezuelan government.

The Colombian radio station  LA FM obtained documents sent to the Colombian Attorney General office by the Colombian navy. These documents included a so-called Diary by a narcotrafficker known as “Chupeta”, as well as a packet of documents from the well-known narcotrafficker Enrique Calle Serna, known as “Comba”.

March 26, 2009 Colombian navy Rear Admiral  Cesar Augusto Narvaez, chief of naval intelligence, sent the Colombian Attorney General office the documents mentioned above, generated by the two narcos and by the already deceased chief of the chief of the Northern Valle Cartel Wilber Varela, also known as “Jabon” [ Soap]. These documents revealed how the Colombian narcos moved both in Colombia and Venezuela, helped by their contacts in both countries. In 2008 a first document bearing the logo of a Puma, the symbol of the organization created by “Jabon” and “Comba” dealt with pending contacts to be made in Venezuela by Jose Antonio Perez Chacon, a name used by “Jabon” while he stayed in Venezuela. The day he was killed, January 31, 2008, in the Venezuelan Andes he was using this name.

The contacts he used in Venezuela were, according to the documents:

Nestor Reverol

A General of the Venezuelan National Guard. He is currently a Vice Minister of Civic Security and the Director of the Anti-Drug National Office, the Drug Czar. Amazing, ins’t it?

Luis Correa

Former Director of the Anti-Dug National Office. He was the Head of the Committee gainst the illicit use of Drugs since may 2005. He was in the Anti-Drug National Office until February 6, 2007, when he was replaced by Reverol

Jesus Armando Rodriguez

A General in the Venezuelan National Guard, former Commander of the Police in the state of Lara

Hugo Cabezas

Current Governor of the state of Trujillo in Venezuela. Former Director of the Identification Office.

Retired Colonel Julio Rodríguez Salas, retired Captain Navarro de León, National Guard Colonel Julio Marquez Marquez and others.