The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) ratified the 30-year prison sentence imposed on three soldiers found guilty of treason, among other crimes. In that case, the defendants are identified as Yoan Manuel González Gavidia, Héctor Luis Armas Saldivia, who hold the rank of second sergeants, and soldier Pedro Enrique Arreaza Uray, says sentence 678 of the Criminal Chamber, signed by its members, Elsa Gómez (speaker), Carmen Marisela Castro and Maikel Moreno Pérez.
At the time the events were detected (October 2021), the three soldiers were assigned to the Mariscal Sucre Air Base, located in Maracay (Aragua), from whose position they allowed criminals to enter to steal ammunition, according to the investigation. The Armaments Service of the Bolivarian Military Aviation operates at the aforementioned base, to whose facilities “members of criminal gangs were allowed access with the purpose of stealing from them weapons, ammunition and war material such as fragmentary grenades and explosives,” explains the ruling of the Criminal Chamber.
”After the theft was carried out in the company of these military personnel from the Bolivarian Military Navy, the members of the criminal gangs withdrew, leaving these troops with a payment in exchange for their participation in these events,” the sentence states.
Such a situation was detected on October 4, 2021 when a special procedure was carried out at the Sucre Base and a shortage of more than one million ammunition was discovered, mostly intended for the AK-103 rifle system. Specifically, they had stolen 2,700,000 ammunition, including 668,000 7.62X39 caliber and 553 rifles between AK-103 and M-63, as well as “a considerable amount of explosives material.”
The investigation led to the arrest of González, Arreaza and Armas who were charged before the 6th Military Control Court based in Valencia (Carabobo) for the crimes of treason, theft of effects belonging to the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (Fanb), aggravated disobedience and against military decorum.
Subsequently, military prosecutors Jhobert Gandica Ruiz and Carlos Flores Belisario request to open a trial against the three sergeants. That trial was held between May 14 and August 24, 2023 before the 3rd Military Trial Court of Caracas, which sentenced them to the maximum penalty after declaring them guilty of the three crimes charged.
This sentence was confirmed on March 13 by the Martial Court of the Military Criminal Judicial Circuit with National Jurisdiction. For this reason, the three soldiers take the case to the highest court of the Martial Court, that is, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, where they request to annul the maximum sentence imposed on them. They allege, among others, that the trial court evaluated evidence presented “without being able to demonstrate the manner, time, and place of the qualified crime, nor the participation of those currently convicted of the commission of the acts that motivated the legal classification for which they were sentenced to 30 years.”
That decision of the trial court was endorsed by the Court Martial, a body that “was wrong in its decision by ratifying the decision,” according to the defense attorneys of the three convicted men who claim that the Court Martial “overlooked the fact that the court (trial) did not evaluate any documentary evidence, that is, there is no useful documentary means in the file to prove the fact, such as an initial inventory that indicates the existence of the alleged stolen assets.”
The magistrates analyzed this approach and the others presented by the convicted soldiers and did not find that they outlined what was “the legal defect” that the Court Martial allegedly incurred when issuing a sentence endorsing the 30-year sentence handed down by the trial court.
This lack of precision prevents the Criminal Chamber from learning about the alleged procedural violation committed by the collegiate court (Court Martial) and for this reason they agreed to declare the complaints presented in the appeal to be dismissed. Consequently, they left the 30-year prison sentence imposed on González, Armas and Arreaza unscathed.
