The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) confirmed the 30-year prison sentence imposed on five opposition leaders who were involved in a plan to boycott the installation of the National Assembly in January 2021. Such decision is contained in sentence No. 865 published on December 4 with the signature of the three members of the Criminal Chamber; that is, Elsa Gómez (speaker), Carmen Marisela Castro and Maikel Moreno.
In this case, the people sentenced to the maximum sentence are identified as Argenis Enrique Ugueto Benítez, Rigoberto Moreno Carmona, Darío Pastor Estrada Perozo, Robert José Franco Vallera and Julio César Sánchez Arias.
A counterintelligence report states that these people attended a meeting on December 21, 2020, organized by members of the Colombian intelligence services and the United States Anti-Narcotics Office (DEA).
That meeting took place in the town of Riohacha, Colombia, where they planned “destabilizing activities against the country’s institutions, to be carried out between December 28, 2020 and January 5, 2021.” Among these plans were: the assassination of a senior State official, sabotage of the inauguration of elected deputies on December 6, 2020, as well as the seizure of military forts to steal weapons and equipment.
These people opened a WhatsApp group, identified as “Operation American Continent 2020 Venezuela” to which approximately 41 people were attached, including operators, financiers and cooperators, some of them dissident members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (Fanb), former members of the police forces and fugitives from Venezuelan justice.
The five subjects were arrested between Lara, Trujillo and Caracas. Subsequently, the Public Ministry requested to open a trial against the five, as well as Ronald Enrique Flores Rivero. The latter was accused of treason, criminal association and attempted intentional homicide. These same crimes were charged to Ugueto, Moreno, Estrada, Sánchez and Franco.
But, in the case of Ronald Flores Rivero, he admitted his participation in the events investigated, which is why he was sentenced to 13 years and 7 months in prison, according to a sentence issued by the 4th National Control Court with Competence in Terrorism on March 23, 2021.
As for Ugueto, Moreno, Estrada, Sánchez and Franco, their trial began on September 26, 2023 and ended on August 9, 2024, the day they were sentenced to 30 years in prison, according to a ruling by the 3rd Trial Court with Competence in Crimes Associated with Terrorism.
On July 10, said sentence was ratified by the 1st Special Chamber of the Court of Appeals with Jurisdiction in Terrorism. For this reason, they went to the Criminal Chamber of the highest court where they filed a series of complaints. One of the denunciations says that “the Prosecutor’s Office narrates the events in a generic manner, without specifying the elements of time, manner and place, nor the specific conduct attributed to each one…”.
In this regard, the magistrates warned that the arguments put forward by the defense lawyers of the group of accused refer to events that occurred during the trial, an aspect that is not susceptible to being aired in a cassation appeal such as the one presented before the TSJ. Based on that and other criteria, the magistrates dismissed the appeal and left the maximum penalty sentence untouched.
