Twelve people were sentenced to 30 years in prison after being found guilty of having participated in the assassination attempt against President Nicolás Maduro, which occurred on August 4, 2018 on Bolívar Avenue. Five other defendants received sentences between 24 and 5 years in prison.
The decision is contained in a sentence of the Special Court First of Trial with jurisdiction in cases related to Crimes Associated with Terrorism with Jurisdiction at the National Level by Judge Hennit Carolina López Mesa who read the device early this Thursday at the Palace of Justice in Caracas.
Among the 12 who were sentenced to the maximum sentence are three soldiers.
One of the taxes of the 30-year sentence is General Alejandro Pérez Gámez, who at the time of the events was serving as Director of the Services for the Maintenance of Internal Order of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB).
Pérez Gámez is accused of having allegedly passed on information about the site where the act would take place on August 4, 2018 with the presence of President Maduro; event celebrating the 81st anniversary of the GNB.
Precisely in the final session of the judgment developed in the Palace of Justice of Caracas, Pérez Gámez took the floor to question the report prepared by Lieutenant Gabriela Alas, attached to the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (Dgcim), where he is mentioned as an alleged informant of the executors of the attack, according to witnesses.
“If the Public Ministry knows that it was Oviedo Mosqueda, head of communications at Casa Militar, who claimed to have passed the information to Julio Borges about the act on Bolívar Avenue, because he admitted the facts, how can I be accused of that?” replied General Pérez Gámez.
The Colonel (GNB) Pedro Javier Zambrano Hernandez He was another of the soldiers who received the maximum penalty. They accuse him of having allegedly sent messages to the perpetrators of the attack.
Juan Carlos Vanegas Monastery, Retired Sergeant Major First Class (GNB), was also sentenced to 30 years in prison. This person was requested for his alleged participation in the assault on Fort Paramacay located in Valencia (Carabobo) on August 6, 2017.
But in the drone attack file, he is listed as the person who allegedly recruited the 11 participants in the action of August 4, 2018. He recruited them and took them for training at the Atlanta farm, located in Chinácota, Colombia, according to his own testimony.
Those recruited are also accused of acting in the violent protests of 2014 and 2017 called by a sector of the opposition.
The pilots. The pilots of the two drones activated in front of the stage where the Head of State was on that August 4, were also sentenced to 30 years in prison: Bryan de Jesús Oropeza Ruiz, Argenis Gabriel Valera Ruiz and Alberto José Bracho Rosques. Yanín Fabiana Pernía Colonel, the woman accused of providing logistics for that action, also received a maximum sentence.
Yolmer Jose Escalona Torrealbathe explosives expert who received the drones in Barquisimeto (Lara) for their preparation with C-4, according to the investigation, was also sentenced to 30 years.
Emirlendris Carolina Benitez Rosalesa businesswoman, listed as an alleged collaborator in the failed attack, received the maximum sentence.
Oswaldo Gabriel Castillo Lunar, sentenced to 30 years in prison, confessed through a video, being a member of the so-called Active Resistance. Castillo was one of those who trained in the Colombian camp to activate the drones.
“I asked Mrs. Genesis who financed this, she replied that the financier of all this is called Julio Borges,” Castillo confessed.
Henrybert Emmanuel Rivas Rivas, Sentenced to 30 years, he was the ringleader of the operation, as stated at the time by the then Minister of Communication, Jorge Rodríguez. Rivas said in a video that after the attack they tried to get him out of Venezuela with the collaboration of the Chilean embassy. “I lasted five months in the camp. We practice a lot the handling of the drones, “revealed the subject.
Jose Miguel Estada Gonzalez He is also part of the group of 12 sentenced to 30 years in prison. Collaborator in the preparation of the drones.
other convicts
Angela Lizbeth Exposito Carrillo. 24 years. She accused of hosting Henrybert Emmanuel Rivas Rivas, leader of the operation, in her home.
Jose Eloy Rivas Diaz. 20 years. Owner of the company Stand Electronic, appointed to pay the lodging and provide the electronic equipment for the operation.
General Hector Armando Hernandez Da Costa. 16 years. Collaborator in the preparations
Juan Requesen (former First Justice deputy) 8 years. In a video he declared details of the operation and his performance in it.
“I was contacted by Julio Borges, who asked me the favor of transferring a person from Venezuela to Colombia, it was Juan Monasterio,” he revealed.
Wilder Anderson Vasquez Velasquez. 5 years. Accused of collaborating in the logistics of the attack.
Warrants. The Special Court urged the Public Ministry to “give impetus to the process against” Julio Borges, an opposition political leader based in Colombia, who is allegedly the intellectual author of the drone attack.
That same warrant covers the defendants Virginia Antonieta Da Silva, Osman Alexis Delgado Tasbosky, Josser Eduardo López, Yilbert Alberto Escalona Torrealba, Gregorio José Yaguas Monjes and David Alexander Beaumont Álvarez, investigated for the attempted assassination.
Likewise, the Court urged the Public Ministry to process the arrest warrant against Adriana Rosa Bronbin Báez.
The trial for the frustrated assassination began on December 2, 2019 and ended (hearing stage) the night of this Tuesday, August 2.
