….but what the former Venezuelan Director of Intelligence does claim is startling
By Guy Page
Contrary to well-circulated online reports, a letter from the lawyer for a convicted high-ranking Venezuelan official and narco-trafficker awaiting sentencing does not claim Sens. Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders have money from the Venezuelan government.
Former Director of Intelligence Hugo Carvajal Barrios – AKA “El Pollo” – is in U.S. federal prison awaiting sentencing for a drug trafficking, to which he pleaded guilty earlier this year. The letter was delivered to the newspaper by Barrios’ lawyer, a former U.S. attorney. There is speculation that the letter is Carvajal’s effort to induce a pardon, or at least favorable sentencing.
What the letter does claim is startling about U.S., Russian and Venezuelan relations. The entire text of the letter and account of its provenance can be read in the Dallas Express.
Vermonters have notified VDC today of this X post from Joshua Hall: “60 U.S. SENATORS are on THE VENEZUELA LIST of politicians who have been receiving MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN KICKBACKS from the Maduro regime and the Venezuelan drug trafficking organizations that make up his government. Forget about the Seditious Six… We’ve got THE SEDITIOUS SIXTY.” A list of the supposed politicians, including Sanders and Welch, accompanies the post.
However, the actual Dec. 2 letter from Hugo Carvajal Barrios to “Mr. President Trump and the People of the United States” makes no claim about politicians receiving kickbacks, although it does mention unnamed diplomats and CIA officers.
The text of the letter in its entirety appears below:
Dear Mr. President Trump and The People of the United States,
My name is Hugo Carvajal Barrios. For many years, I was a high-ranking member of the Venezuelan regime. I was a three-star general trusted by both Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro and served as Director of Military Intelligence and a Deputy in the National Assembly. Today, I sit in an American prison because I voluntarily plead guilty to the crimes charged against me: a narco-terrorism conspiracy. I write to atone by telling the full truth so that the United States can protect itself from the dangers I witnessed for so many years.
I publicly broke with the Maduro regime in 2017 and fled my country, knowing that I face criminal charges in the United States. In doing so, I became their enemy. Knowing the risks, I acted with the strongest conviction to dismantle Maduro’s criminal regime and bring freedom to my country. Today, I see the need to address the American people about the reality of what the Venezuelan regime truly is—and why President Trump’s policies are not only correct, but absolutely necessary to the United States’ national security.
Narco-Terrorism
I personally witnessed how Hugo Chavez’s government became a criminal organization that is now run by Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and other senior regime officials.
The purpose of this organization, now known as the Cartel of the Suns is to weaponize drugs against the United States. The drugs that reached your cities through new routes were not accidents of corruption nor just the work of independent traffickers; they were deliberate policies coordinated by the Venezuelan regime against the United States.
This plan was suggested by the Cuban regime to Chávez in the mid-2000s and has been successfully executed with help from FARC, ELN, Cuban operatives, and Hezbollah. The regime has provided weapons, passports, and impunity for these terrorist organizations to operate freely from Venezuela against the United States.
Tren de Aragua
I was present when decisions were made to organize and weaponize criminal gangs across Venezuela to protect the regime—among them the group known as Tren de Aragua. Chávez ordered the recruitment of criminal leaders inside and outside prisons to defend “the revolution” in exchange for impunity. After Chávez died, Maduro expanded this strategy by exporting criminality and chaos abroad to target Venezuelan political exiles and artificially reduce crime statistics within Venezuela. Gang leaders were instructed to send thousands of members out of the country. This was coordinated through the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Prisons, the National Guard, and national police forces. Tren de Aragua became the most effective and fastest growing.
When the Biden–Harris open-border policy became widely known, they seized the opportunity to send these operatives into the United States. They now have obedient, armed personnel on American soil. To finance their operations, they were explicitly instructed to continue kidnapping, extorting, and killing. Every crime they commit on your soil is an act ordered by the regime.
Counterintelligence and Espionage Against the United States
I was present when Russian intelligence came to Caracas to propose to Hugo Chávez the tapping of submarine internet cables that connect most of South America and the Caribbean islands with the United States for the purpose of penetrating United States Government communications.
In 2015, I warned Maduro that allowing Russian intelligence to build and run a secret listening post on La Orchila Island would one day invite American bombs. He ignored me.
For twenty years, the Venezuelan regime sent spies into your country—many are still there, some disguised as members of the Venezuelan opposition. Cuban intelligence showed me their networks inside your naval bases on the East Coast. They bragged about having sent thousands of spies over decades, some now career politicians.
U.S. diplomats and CIA officers were paid to assist Chávez and Maduro in remaining in power. These Americans acted as spies for Cuba and Venezuela, and some remain active to this day.
Smartmatic and Your Elections
Smartmatic was born as an electoral tool of the Venezuelan regime but soon derived into a tool to help keep the regime stay in power forever. I know this because I placed the head of IT of the National Electoral Council (CNE) in his position, and he reported directly to me. The Smartmatic system can be altered—this is a fact. This technology was later exported abroad, including to the United States. Regime operatives maintain relationships with election officials and voting-machine companies inside your country. I do not claim that every election is stolen, but I state with certainty that elections can be rigged with the software – and has been used to do so.
People of the United States, make no mistake about the threat posed by allowing a narco-terrorist organization to roam freely in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America, doing everything possible to harm the American people—to finance anti-Americanism across the continent, and to facilitate the operations of other terrorist organizations and enemies of the United States within Venezuela and now within your borders.
The regime I served is not merely hostile—it is at war with you, using drugs, gangs, espionage, and even your own democratic processes as weapons. President Trump’s policies against the Maduro criminal regime are not just justified, but necessary and proportionate to the threat. He may even be underestimating what the regime is prepared to do to hold onto power. They have contingency plans for every extreme scenario to ensure they never relinquish control.
I absolutely support President Trump’s policy towards Venezuela, because it is in self-defense and he is acting based on the truth. I remain ready to provide additional details about these matters to the United States government.
Hugo Carvajal Barrios, United States of America
VDC has asked permission to republish the entire Dallas Express article and will do so if granted.