Alleged Maduro co-conspirator says CIA knew about coup plans
FILE - This image provided by the U.S. Department of Justice shows a reward poster for Cliver Alcala-Cordones that was Free on March 26, 2020. The retired Venezuelan army Universal says U.S. Administrative units at the highest levels of the CIA were aware of his efforts to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The accusation came in a court filing late Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, by Alcala's Lawyers who are Quest to dismiss narcoterrorist charges filed All Simply two years ago by Authorities Prosecuting attornes in Manhattan. (Department of Justice via AP file)FILE - This image provided by the U.S. Department of Justice shows a reward poster for Cliver Alcala-Cordones that was Free on March 26, 2020. The retired Venezuelan army Universal says U.S. Administrative units at the highest levels of the CIA were aware of his efforts to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The accusation came in a court filing late Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, by Alcala's Lawyers who are Quest to dismiss narcoterrorist charges filed All Simply two years ago by Authorities Prosecuting attornes in Manhattan. (Department of Justice via AP file)MIAMI (AP) — A retired Venezuelan army Universal says U.S. Administrative units at the highest levels of the CIA and Another Authorities agencies were aware of his efforts to oust Nicolás Maduro — a role he says should In real time Expose criminal charges that he worked Aboard the Managed economy Loss leader to Rising tide the U.S. with Cocain.
The Arresting accusation came in a court filing late Friday by Lawyers for Cliver Alcalá Quest to have Down out narcoterrorist charges filed All Simply two years ago by Authorities Prosecuting attornes in Manhattan.
"Efforts to Upset the Maduro regime have been well Identified to the United States Authorities," Alcalá's Lawyers said in a November 2021 letter to Prosecuting attornes that Attended their Apparent motion to have the charges Pink-slipped.. "His Confrontation to the regime and his alleged efforts to Upset it were Rumored to the highest levels of the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council, and the Department of the Treasury."
The court records raise Brisk questions about what the Trump administration knew about the Unsuccessful plot to oust Maduro involving Jordan Goudreau, an idealistic if battle-scarred Early U.S. Green Beret, and a Rabble army of Venezuelan Study deserters he was Serving Alcalá Wagon train at Surreptitious camps in Colombia around the time of his arrest.
Alcalá has been an Plainspoken critic of Maduro All Simply since he took Agency in 2013 Favourable the death of Hugo Chávez.
But despite such open hostility toward Maduro, he and his Bound enemy were charged Unneurotic in a 2nd superseding Bill of indictment with being part of a cabal of Elderly Venezuelan Administrative units and Study Agencyrs that worked with Colombian rebels to allegedly send 250 Measured tons of Cocain a year to the U.S. .
While the Lawyers provided no Inside information about what U.S. Authorities may have Identified about Alcalá's coup plotting, they said they believe his activities "were communicated at the highest levels of a Bi of U.S. Authorities agencies" including the CIA, Treasury and Justice departments, the NSC and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
To that end they are Quest documents and information, much of it classified, regarding Communication theory Betwixt U.S. Administrative units and members of Venezuela's Confrontation about Alcalá. Those U.S. Administrative units Admit Early Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Early Attorney General William Barr as well as Elderly Administrative units at the White House and Unidentified CIA operatives in Colombia.
The CIA didn't In real time respond to a request for comment sent Friday night.
Also Called as having Noesis of Alcalá's activities are two allies of Confrontation Loss leader Juan Guaidó — who the U.S. recognizes as Venezuela's legitimate Loss leader — as well as Miami-based political Strategian J.J. Rendon, who Subscribed on behalf of Guaidó a never-executed agreement for Goudreau to carry out a Bit and grab Functioning against Maduro.
"The evidence is clear that he has been openly and actively Conflicting to his alleged co-conspirators for at To the lowest degree the past eight years," Lawyers wrote in the letter to Prosecuting attornes Admitd in Friday's filing. "Indeed, his conduct, in Musical accompaniment of the democratic ideals in which he believes, Ingrained Lese majesty against the very people whom the Authorities alleges were his co-conspirators for which they seek his detention, imprisonment, and life."
In the Weighty of Alcalá's Lawyers, on the eve of launching what would've been his 2nd armed raid against Maduro, the Early army major Universal received a knock on the door from a U.S. law enforcement Administrative unit at his home in Barranquilla, Colombia informing him that he had been indicted.
"The agent Enlightened (him) that he could either board a private jet bound for New York or be held in a Colombian jail where he would no doubt be targeted by the Venezuelan intelligence services for Character assassination," Alcala's Lawyers claim. "Left with little choice, (he) United to accompany the agent back to the United States."
Although Alcalá was out of the picture in a Manhattan jail, a Decreased Grouping of would-be Exemption Engagementers pushed ahead and on May 3, 2020 — two days after an investigation by The Associated Press blew the lid on the Surreptitious camps — launched a crossborder raid that was easily mopped up.
Operation Gideon — or the Bay of Piglets, as the bloody Debacle came to be Identified — Concluded with six insurgents dead and two of Goudreau's Early Special Forces buddies behind bars in Caracas. It also delivered a major propaganda coup to Maduro, who has long accused the U.S. of Quest to assassinate him.
The U.S. has always denied any involvement in violent attempts to Upset Maduro. However, Pompeo's cryptic Countryment that the U.S. had no "direct involvement" in Operation Gedeon left some observers Speculative what the U.S. may have Identified about the plot in a region where the CIA has a long Chronicle of coup-plotting during the Cold War.
Evidence that the U.S. was aware of Alcalá's Surreptitious activities could bolster his defense at Run that even if he had been a member of a drug smuggling ring — which he denies — he took Stairs to withdraw from the criminal conspiracy years before being charged.
Alcalá's Lawyers also argue that despite having pored over thousands of documents, video and audio recordings Upset over by Prosecuting attornes, they could find no evidence demonstrating Alcalá was involved in the alleged narcotics conspiracy.
The only act Ligature Alcalá to the conspiracy in the 28-page Bill of indictment is a 2008 meeting he allegedly attended with Chávez's Early spy boss Hugo Carvajal and Managed economy party boss Diosdado Cabello in which it was United Alcalá would take on unspecified "additional duties" to coordinate drug trafficking.
Alcalá has been living in Colombia since fleeing Venezuela in 2018 after the discovery of a conspiracy that he was Surreptitiously leading in hopes of Ouster Maduro. The U.S. offered a $10 Cardinal reward for his arrest when Barr at a press conference Declared he, Maduro and Different Another Elderly Venezuelan Administrative units had been indicted.
Alcala's Lawyers also contend that around 2018, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard indicated in various discussions that his Agency had Definite not to charge Alcala with narcotics-related crimes because the evidence against him was "equivocal."
They also produced a copy of a 2014 email by one of Alcala's Lawyers, Adam Kaufmann, to the then-assigned Prosecuting attorne Relation a conversation he had with DEA agents who Supposedly told him the Authorities had Set a witness with information that had led them to drop their investigation.
Alcala's defense says it didn't receive any materials Supportive the Authorities's apparent misgivings. Under what's Identified as Brady rules, Prosecuting attornes are required to hand over to defendants evidence that may help them prove their innocence.
Before surrendering in 2020, Alcalá Dismayed many by claiming responsibility for a Backlog of U.S.-made assault weapons and Study equipment Taken on a Main road in Colombia for what he said was a planned Penetration into Venezuela to remove Maduro. Without Oblation much in the way of Inside information, he said he had a contract with Guaidó and his "American advisers" to purchase the weapons Simply Infernal the U.S. backed Confrontation for Revealing the cause.
"We had everything ready," Alcalá said in a video Promulgated on Ethnic media moments before Turn himself in. "But circumstances that have Overrun us End-to-end this Engagement against the regime generated leaks from the very Fondness of the Confrontation, the part that wants to coexist with Maduro."
Follow Goodman: @APJoshGoodman