MIAMI, United States. – The Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba (FDHC) included Castro’s intelligence lieutenant colonel Damián Cordero Torres on his list of violent repressors for his role in Venezuela at the service of the Nicolás Maduro regime.
According to that organization, Cordero Torres has committed beatings and physical abuse, murders, persecution for political reasons, and has served as an adviser to repressive forces in Venezuela.
On his Twitter profile, the repressor Presents itself as an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) of Cuba.
According to the FDHC, Cordero Torres, a graduate of International Journalism at Lomonosov University of the Soviet Union, held a key position in Valencia, Carabobo state, during the April-July 2017 protests in Venezuela.
According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Social Conflict (OVCS), in that period there were violent actions by paramilitary groups in at least 523 protests. Carabobo ranked third, shared with Táchira, in deaths during the protests with 21, behind only the Capital District (24) and Miranda (23).
FDHC investigations determined that Castroite Intelligence and Counterintelligence officers advised and participated in the repression of the 2014 and 2017 protests in Venezuela, issuing instructions to the Bolivarian National Guard, the Bolivarian National Police and paramilitary groups known as “colectivos”.
The book Cubazuela, chronicle of a Cuban intervention released by FDHC contains a transcript of a recording of a Cuban officer instructing snipers to occupy high places from where they could dominate the protest landscape and remove protesters from circulation.
The role of the Cuban military in Venezuela was confirmed by a mission of the United Nations Human Rights Council that visited Venezuela in 2020 and found crimes against humanity.
Former officials of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) of Venezuela declared that agents of the Cuban State have instructed, advised and participated in intelligence and counterintelligence activities for the DGCIM. The UN Mission also reviewed the confidential written agreements between the Governments of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Cuba, in which the latter was given a formal role in the restructuring of the Venezuelan military counterintelligence services and in the training of officers .
Damián Cordero Torres is a former officer of the Military Intelligence Directorate (DIM) and has completed various missions abroad, as second secretary of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington in 2007. In 2017, he was the Cuban consul in Valencia, Carabobo state.
