The drug trafficking accusations against Alcalá have to do with his alleged relationship with the organization “El Cartel de los Soles”, investigated by the United States authorities in a case that also involves Hugo “El Pollo Carvajal”, Tareck El Aissami as suspects. , Diosdado Cabello and Nicolás Maduro
The Court of the Southern District of New York established July 10, 2023 as the date for the start of the trial against the General of the National Armed Forces (FAN), Clíver Alcalá, indicated by the United States authorities for alleged crimes of drug trafficking.
Alcalá turned himself in in Colombia and was extradited to the United States in mid-2020. Since then, practically no update regarding his case had emerged, until this date was defined in a court hearing on December 2, 2022. .
The Prosecutor’s Office points out that he is part of the drug trafficking organization called “El Cartel de Los Soles”, allegedly made up of military and political leaders from Venezuela.
Alcalá —who held important positions during the management of the late Hugo Chávez—, pleaded not guilty since his arrest and defends himself against the accusation raised by the Prosecutor’s Office, one of the files on which the greatest attention is focused since it is the only one in which the justice of the United States has pointed directly to high authorities of another country.
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In the case against General Clíver Alcalá Cordones, the US prosecutors also pointed out the military of the same rank Hugo “El Pollo Carvajal”, Tareck El Aissami, Diosdado Cabello and Nicolás Maduro, among others, as well as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as alias Jesús Santrich (Seuxis Paucis Hernández Solarte), declared dead in May 2021, and Luciano Marín Arango, known as Iván Márquez, who would have died in Venezuela in June 2022.
At the beginning of 2022, Clíver Alcalá Cordones tried to have access to confidential information that, according to his defense, exculpated him, but Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein denied the request because the request threatened the national security of the United States.
His lawyers, representing two law firms, were also unsuccessful when they tried to have the charges against the general dismissed, who insisted in court that the actions he took when he was part of the military elite in Venezuela were the product of orders from his superior, the also General Hugo “El Pollo Carvajal”, imprisoned in Spain waiting to be extradited to the United States, and then President Hugo Chávez.
In his defense statement, he highlighted the demand for immunity, to avoid being prosecuted by the United States, because —according to his argument— as a soldier he only complied with a policy of the Venezuelan State of open support for the FARC.
*With information from supreme injustice
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