The president of the National Assembly (AN), Jorge Rodríguez, showed this Friday new evidence of the relationship between Juan Guaidó and the Voluntad Popular (VP) political party with Colombian drug trafficking.
“Juan Guaidó’s relations with Colombian drug trafficking are clear and well known,” he said during a press conference, in which he referred to the arrest of drug trafficker Biaggio Benito Garofalo Forte, recently arrested in Colombia.
Garofalo Forte was the municipal manager of VP in Anaco, Anzoátegui state, and was arrested in Colombia this week. He had been requested since 2006 in 193 countries by the Spanish authorities, so Interpol activated the red code to capture him.
“There is a direct relationship between Juan Guaidó and Colombian drug trafficking (…) In January 2019, a party was held in Anaco, where Juan Guaidó, Quiñones, Carlos Paparoni and Barreto Sira were present,” he said.
He added that Garófalo acted as a link between the United States ambassador, James Story, and Juan Guaidó. Similarly, he presented a letter dated January 16, 2016, signed by Guaidó, in which Garófalo was appointed as municipal coordinator of VP in Anaco.
Rodríguez asserted that Garófalo was VP’s main financier and maintained close contact with Guaidó and his wife Fabiana Rosales.
“We will not meet with Guaidó”
The President of Parliament took the opportunity to report that, in the midst of the new stage of the national dialogue, they will not meet with Juan Guaidó.
“We do not meet with criminals, we put criminals in jail.”
He also reported that Colombian President Iván Duque was aware of the relationship between Guaidó and Garófalo. “I do know that Duque knows about this,” he said, while highlighting the media silence that there was in Colombia with this case.
Who is Biaggio Benito Garofalo Forte
Italian-Venezuelan citizen requested since April 14, 2015 when the Criminal Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice issued a decision indicating that it received a file on a passive extradition request made against Garófalo, who was required by the authorities of Spain for the alleged crime of drug trafficking.
In the sentence, the inadmissibility of the passive extradition request of Garófalo, who at that time was being held in the Apprehension Department of the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations Corps, was declared inadmissible.
The document was shown during the press conference and indicates that the Criminal Cassation Chamber made a firm commitment “to start the criminal process, for which it will send the documentation received to the Nineteenth Court of First Instance in Control Function of the Criminal Judicial Circuit of the Caracas Metropolitan Area.
However, on March 14, Migration from Colombia detained him in a hotel in Cartagena. The investigations of Migración Colombia determined that Garófalo entered this country through an illegal trail through La Guajira.
