The 4th Special Control Court with Jurisdiction in Crimes Associated with Terrorism ordered Oswaldo José Cheremos Carrasquel to open a free trial, who is classified by the military authorities as one of the alleged members of the Tren del Llano organization, according to judicial sources.
Last Monday the preliminary hearing of Cheremos Carrasquel was held, a moment of the criminal process where the judge must decide whether or not to order a trial against the defendant.
The hearing was held in the Fourth Antiterrorist Court located in the Palace of Justice of Caracas. In that event, the Public Ministry, represented by the prosecutor Johannelis Escalona, proposed the change of one of the three crimes originally charged to Cheremos Carrasquel. In that case, the Prosecutor’s Office ruled out charging him with the crime of terrorism and replaced it with “cover-up in the crime of terrorism,” explained the judicial source. Likewise, he maintained the accusation for the other two crimes: illegal traffic of arms and ammunition and association, provided for in the Organic Law against Organized Crime and Financing of Terrorism.
Prosecutor Escalona also proposed in the preliminary hearing to judge Cheremos Carrasquel free.
Once the proposals of the Public Ministry were heard, Judge José Maxcimino Márquez García accepted them in full. Consequently, he decreed the opening of a trial against the defendant and granted him a precautionary measure substituting freedom, which implies that he must appear every five days before the Fourth Anti-Terrorist State Court and a ban on leaving the country, the source said.
Details
Cheremos Carrasquel was arrested on Friday, October 21 of last year on a farm whose ownership is attributed to him, located in the Los Recortes sector, San José de Unare parish, Pedro Zaraza municipality, Guárico, according to the minutes of the presentation hearing 4OCT-097-2022.
The arrest of Cheremos Carrasquel was reported by General Domingo Hernández Lárez, head of the Strategic Operational Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (Ceofanb) through his social networks, where he wrote the following: “In the state of Guárico FANB detains a subject armed, member of the criminal gang Tren del Llano, with weapons and ammunition. Only the State may possess and use firearms.
The presentation hearing of Cheremos Carrasquel took place between Thursday, October 27 and Friday, October 28 of last year before the Fourth Anti-Terrorist Court.
During the presentation hearing, prosecutor Johannelis Escalona explained that the arrest of Cheremos Carrasquel occurred after a video related to activities “presumably by members of the international gang known as the Sinaloa Cartel” was released on social networks. In the aforementioned video, eleven people are displayed: 9 men and two women, many of whom carried firearms, specified the Prosecutor’s Office.
Once the accusation was made, the defense lawyers of Cheremos Carrasquel took the floor and requested a precautionary measure so that their client could be prosecuted in freedom. On that occasion, Judge Márquez García denied that request and instead ordered the deprivation of liberty.
At the time of his arrest, six firearms were seized from Cheremos Carrasquel: a Maveri 88 12-gauge shotgun; a Franchi Model SPAS 15 12 gauge shotgun; a Scandinavia SZ550 22 caliber rifle with a telescopic sight; a 9-caliber submachine gun Atalanta GA Model GA USA. In addition to this, the military obtained 182 cartridges of various calibers, among others, according to a draft prepared by Detachment 343 of the Bolivarian National Guard.
The photos of the seized material were published on the social networks of General Hernández Lárez, head of Ceofanb. The senior official stressed that only the Venezuelan State can display weapons of war.
