Venezuela: Almost two years after Operation Gideon there are deaths that the Prosecutor's Office does not mention, bodies not buried and a trial full of fear

When the military incursion into Macuto, Venezuela, occurred by a group of soldiers whom Captain Antonio José Sequea Torres led, in an Infiltrated Operation because he was in communication with Diosdado Cabello, there was a lot of confusion, which the Venezuelan regime took advantage of to set up a platform for disinformation and counter-information. Almost two years after the fact, the fact still has more questions than answers, even in the file they talk about six dead, but among them they do not mention chief supervisor Jean Carlos José Castro Gutiérrez, whose body was revealed in the CICPC technical inspection.

Some names do not appear, are wrong or incomplete, as is the case with that of José Roberto Abreu Fagúndez or Anderson Smith Araque Portilla. The main person responsible for this operation, Captain Sequea Torres held in El Helicoide under the command of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin), an agency for which he served for several years, enjoys privileges in prison. In a uniform bearing his name, they found him, when they capture him, a memory stick with 68 names that the prosecution assumes were part of the conspiracy.

Sequea el Sebin allows him to call a large number of military personnel, even outside the country. “I don't know how he knew my number, but he called me as if nothing had happened and of course I didn't answer him and I blocked him,” an officer who is abroad tells Infobae.

Colombian justice detained brothers Juvenal and Juven Sequea Torres, both elders of the National Guard, as well as alias Pico, Brian Rafael Pérez Astudillo and Yacsy Álvarez, allegedly for being spies in that country. The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), in a presentation by Judge Elsa Janeth Gómez Moreno, requested the extradition of all of them, as part of Operation Gideon that occurred on May 3, 2020.

Although it was reported that Francisco José Luna Martínez, Leonard Eligio Briceño Vivas, Carlos Arturo Rosario Pimentel and Eliant Felipe Cesar Caraballo were reportedly ordered deprivation by the Fourth Special Court of First Instance with jurisdiction over terrorist offenses against Francisco José Luna Martínez, Leonard Eligio Briceño Vivas, Carlos Arturo Rosario Pimentel and Eliant Felipe Cesar Caraballo involved in Operation Gideon, it was not known what happened to it or why they appeared involved in Operation Gideon.

In the case of Sergeant Juan Fred Jesús Acosta Ysea, the Bolivarian National Guard published that “one of the terrorists of Operation Gideon” had been arrested in the town of Mene Mauroa, Falcón state. A video denied that version, because the young man, knowing that he was being requested because he was a deserter, came to the command accompanied by his parents, family and friends, which was recorded by several people.

It is important to note that General Cliver Alcalá Cordones, together with Jordan Gudrea, had been preparing a Task Force, in which he was training Venezuelan soldiers, until the moment when the DEA took him to the United States. Antonio Sequea Torres, who was one of those soldiers, took control of the camps and launched the suicidal operation Gideon. Gudreau, who was in the United States, appeared in a video, along with Captain Javier Nieto Quintero, assuming responsibility for it, after it became known of the death in Macuto. Nieto told Infobae that he did it to save those who were still at sea.

The administration of justice

Fourth Court of First Instance in Control Functions with Competence in Cases Related to Crimes Associated with Terrorism with Jurisdiction at the National Level, requested the active extradition of the majors of the National Guard, Juvenal and Juven José Sequea Torres, brothers of the captain (GNB) Antonio José Sequea Torres, who led the Operation Gideon, which led to the death of 8 people and dozens of detainees. First Lieutenant Rayder Alexander Russo Márquez alias Pico, who works as a Venezuelan intelligence agent, Brian Rafael Pérez Astudillo aka Brayan and Yacsy Alexandra Álvarez Mirabal, romantically related to the owner of Silvercorp USA, Jordan Guy MacDonald Goudreau, also entered the request for extradition.

On May 24, 2020, the Fourth Court of First Instance on Terrorism, issued arrest warrants numbers 029-2020, 035-2020, and based on this the Venezuelan state requested the extradition of the Sequea brothers, Russo Pérez and Álvarez for the alleged crimes of: terrorism, treason of the homeland, rebellion, conspiracy with the government alien, illicit trafficking in weapons of war and association. The prosecutors in the case are provisional 73 and 74 nationals against money-laundering, financial and economic crimes Jean Karin López and Elín Teodoro León Aguilar.

On September 24, 2020, the Registry of the Criminal Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, received the request for extradition, under the number AA30-P-2020-000077, whose speaker was Judge Elsa Janeth Gómez Moreno.

On September 29, 2020, the Criminal Cassation Chamber of the TSJ sent communication No. 382 to the General Director (E) of the Administrative Service for Identification, Migration and Aliens (Saime), Gustavo Adolfo Vizcaíno Gil, requesting migratory movements, filiatory data, decadactile prints, traces and records photographic images of the five requested.

Major errors

Prosecutors said that on May 3 (the same day that Operation Gideon took place) the Black Plan First was activated: the implementation of security devices, because by prior intelligence information the security forces “learned that a group of mercenaries intended to enter the national territory by sea coming from neighboring Colombia, specifically from the Colombian Guajira, to deploy an operation called Gideon”.

What was said by the Prosecutor's Office shows that they were waiting for the group, Diosdado Cabello Rondón had said it days before in his program. What is not explained is why the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) was not there, only officials and the Special Actions Forces (FAES) unit attached to the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) that killed eight people from the vessel led by Captain Robert Levid Colina Ibarra alias Pantera.

Prosecutors assured that it was intended to attack

against Venezuelan authorities and that the Operation had been financed “by national and international far-right organizations, with the participation of members of mercenary groups trained by US military and former military personnel in Colombian territory, cells that acquired firearms of different calibers and devices explosives to carry out their objective, actions organized by members of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), carried out through the private paramilitary company Silvercorp, represented by US citizen Jordan Goudreau, former member of the US Army Special Forces”.

The Prosecutor's Office also indicated that the point of arrival of the Operation was close to Macuto Bay, La Guaira, and highlighted to the military: “Major GNB Juvenal Sequea Torres, GNB Lieutenant Roberto Colina Ibarra and GNB Captain Victor Pimienta Torres, prepared under the training of elements of the United States Special Forces, led by the American Luke Alexander Denman”.

Strangely, prosecutors exclude from the list of the main actors, the real leader of that operation, Captain Antonio José Sequea Torres alias León, while mentioning his brother, the My (GNB) Juvenal Sequea alias Tigre who was in Bogotá, Colombia. It was Captain Antonio José who, according to members of that Operation, had been in contact for a few months with Diosdado Cabello Rondón.

Another relevant fact is that prosecutors say that “the national liaison to coordinate logistics, transport, weapons of war (AFAG and AK103 rifles), most of them stolen in previous days from the arms park of the Federal Legislative Palace, in addition to guaranteeing the landing on the corresponding coasts located between populations of Catia La Mar and Macuto, is José Alberto Socorro alias Pepero”.

The rifles, mentioned by the Public Ministry, were not extracted days before the Federal Palace, are part of the weapons that Captain Antonio José Sequea Torres appropriated, during the April 30, 2019 Operation Liberty, in which he and his brothers participated and later took refuge in the house of alias Pepero, in Caracas.

Where was Castro Gutiérrez killed

It is even more relevant that the prosecutors' version is that FAES officials “moved to Macuto, where they held a confrontation with eleven mercenaries who were moving on a boat, who, upon noticing the police presence, opened fire for which they were repelled.”

It reflects a contradiction because if they already had prior information about the incursion through Macuto, how did the FAES move and the confrontation occur, instead of the Armed Forces acting and waiting for them?

According to prosecutors, when FAES responds to the fire, it “neutralizes six of these subjects: Robert Levid Colina Ibarra, alias Pantera, who was requested by several courts and was the leader of that command; Anderson Smith (Anderson Smith Araque Portilla), Cesar Andrés Perales Sequea, Victor Daniel Parra, José Roberto Facundo (José Roberto Facundo (José Roberto Abreu Fagúnez) and Fabian Rodriguez Salazar. In addition, three of them, José Armando Alvarado Flores, Wilmer Oswaldo Salinas Sánchez and Enderson Israel Ríos Marín, got off the boat and started to flee”, but were arrested by SEBIN.

“A fourth subject was spotted, José Alberto Socorro Fernández, alias El Maracucho Caimán, who stated that he was there waiting for the mercenaries to house them in a residence in Macuto, to which the officials moved and managed to appreciate six vehicles, three of them adapted with weapons of war.”

Socorro Fernández, according to the Prosecutor's Office, “was one of the financiers” because he provided vehicles, money and real estate for the logistics of the operation; at his residence in El Hatillo he was allegedly seized “firearms, projectiles, cartridges, and vehicles”, as well as being “linked to Martín Eduardo Álvarez García, who provided one of the vehicles modified to install the machine guns”.

Gustavo Adolfo Hernández Barronco was responsible for modifying the vehicles, hired by Álvarez García, to “install the machine guns; he was arrested in the municipality of Sucre, Miranda, seizing a vehicle, a computer, cell phones”.

It should be noted that, among the deaths of Macuto, mentioned by the Prosecutor's Office in the Gideón case, the chief supervisor Jean Carlos José Castro Gutiérrez does not appear, around whom there were a series of irregularities, doubts until he is seen, in the photographs unveiled by the Venezuelan Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights, in the person by its president Wilmer José Azuaje Cordero.

Chuao and Marcano

“On May 4, 2020, they managed to spot a vessel in the town of Chuao, Aragua state, in which ten mercenaries were transported, including two of American nationality, identified as Luke Alexander Denman and Airan Berry, mercenaries of the Silvercorp company; Cosme Rafael Alcalá Acosta, Raúl Manzanilla Almao, Antonio José Sequea Torres, Rodolfo Jesus Rodriguez Orellana, Jefferson Fernando Diaz Vasquez, Jonder (Josnar) Adolfo Baduel Oyoque, Victor Alejandro Pimienta Salazar and Fernando Andre Noya Boatswain”.

Undoubtedly, on that boat, as one of the soldiers who escaped from Venezuela and who was involved in Operation Gideón told Infobae, “were the people of greatest interest to Antonio Sequea, who at this point we already knew that his real intention was to surrender us and he would return to Colombia with the gringos, with his brother-in-law Noya, with the son of Baduel, with his stalwart Pepper and others. He sent Captain Pantera and the other boys to their deaths.”

On May 4, residents of Puerto Maya denounced the presence of several soldiers belonging to Operation Gideon, who were arrested: Ederson Robertto Rumi Mogollón, Luis Manuelo Paiva Soto, Estewin Andrés Rojas Tapia and Rosmel Edecio Méndez Morales alias Tiburón.

Two days later, on May 6, officials of the Bolivarian National Guard capture; Roberto Andrés Rondón Restrepo, Gilbert Orlando Barillas Fernández and Carlos Enrique Conde Márquez.

The Public Ministry points out that “at the same time, the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) learned that Captain Dimas Omar Murillo Rubio was recruiting people to take the GNB positions of Puerta Morocha and Inteve, and to take the weapons park and the VN4s in order to move to Cenapromil (Green Branch) to free deprived of their liberty allied with the opposition, who would participate in Operation Gideon”.

Another interesting fact is that prosecutors present Carlos Alberto Marcano Vásquez as one of the planners of Operation Gideon (GNB) as one of the planners of Operation Gideon (GNB), who in 2018 was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, but hours later his promotion was revoked for being involved in drug trafficking crimes in eastern Venezuela; he was arrested and sent to the former prison of La Planta, now the Simon Bolivar Prison Center.

On April 30, 2019, during Operation Liberty, My (GNB) Marcano Vasquez, strangely “escaped” from La Planta and appeared in uniform at the Altamira distributor. The soldier, who would be acting as an agent of the intelligence forces, left a few days later for Colombia, presenting himself, to officials of the Venezuelan embassy, with the photos he took with Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López on 30A. On December 10, 2019, he said that in Venezuela several relatives were kidnapping him to force him to surrender, which was widely disseminated by various media outlets, being false; in August 2020, an apartment in Caracas was raided. It does not appear in the extradition request that Venezuela made, but he left Colombia for another country through the intermediary of GB (Ex) Rodolfo José Camacho Rincones.

The Prosecutor's Office involves Capt. José Manuel Ramos López alias Jackal, captured some time after the Operation, “GD Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera and former Commissioner Ivan Antonio Simonovis Aranguren”, the latter two living in the United States.

It says that Lieutenant (GNB) Richard Rafael Alemán Castellanos made contact with Alister Chacón Holguín (former escort of Deputy José Gregorio Vielma Mora), who would locate three buses to transport the detainees when they were released from Ramo Verde prison.

“Richard Rafael Alemán Castellano, Angelo Moisés Rosales Santos, Gerardo José Coticche Guerra, Ronny Adelso Olivares Moreno and Víctor Alfonso Perozo Duran, entered the Hotel Verde Canaima, Pan-American Highway, Coral municipality, Miranda state, who would participate in the takeover of Cenapromil, where Capt. Franklin Antonio Leal Mendoza and S1 Junior Jose Ojeda Alvarado”.

The prosecutor's office assures that Antonio Sequea would be responsible for the attacks on military units as a distractor for the release of generals and former ministers Miguel Eduardo Rodríguez Torres and Raúl Isaías Baduel, as well as the assault on the DGCIM headquarters.

And that, on the other hand, Major Juvenal Sequea, was coordinating an operation with the DEA, for “the entry of mercenaries to carry out the extraction of the Prime National President Nicolás Maduro Moros and Capt. Diosdado Cabello Rondon”.

The Sequea flash drive

On May 10, according to the Public Ministry, in the uniform with the name Sequea, they found a 4G memory stick, in which they found a list with these 68 names:

Major General: Cliver Antonio Alcalá Cordones.

Colonel: Felix Adonai Mata Sanguinetti,

Lieutenant Colonel: Nelson Horacio Morantes Gonzalez, Ilyich Alberto Sanchez Farias, Rafael Pablo Soto Manzanares,

Major: Juvenal Sequea Torres, Juven Jose Sequea Torres, Carlos Alberto Marcano Vasquez,

Captain: Betancourt Francisco Onofre, Ricardo Alfredo Rojas Machado, Henry Jose Rivas Perez, Jesus Manuel Ramos Lopez, Juan Luis Gutierrez Aranguren.

First Lieutenant (1st Lieutenant): Jimmy Jose Montesinos Olivar, Jairo Rafael Bethermytt Carrillo, Rayder Alexander Russo Marquez.

Lieutenant (Lt.): Junior De Jesús Silva, Victor Daniel Parra, José Ángel Barrero Cordones,

First Sergeant (S1): Jackson Leiner Taquiva Becerra, Jeremy Jesus Gonzalez Lopez, Jose Manuel Mendoza Gonzalez, Rawu and Jose Rosales Farias, Alexander Jose Chavez Mogollon, Jose Ibienay Ruiz Delgado, Miguel Angel Plaza Mendez, Anthony Jose Reyes, Rafael David Rosendo Rivero, Orlando Gabriel Aquino Lopez, Omar Gardel Palumo Joel Alexander Aranda Somoza, Leonardo Chirinos Parra and Samaira Del Valle Romero Armario, the only woman in the group and girlfriend of Aguillón Garcés.

Third Sergeant Major (SM3): Edgar Alexander Torres Valera, Jose Rafael Blanco Volcan; Jesus Alberto Colmenares Gallardo, Jose Antonio Moreno Peñaloza, Evans Antonio Rincon Piñeiro, Yully Andreina Diaz Martinez, Andrea Carolina Chacon Cifuentes, Rainier Alexander Alvarez Castellano, Angel Orlando Perdomo Hurtado,

Second Sergeant (S2): Jose Alexander Sanguino Escalante, Ricardo David Fonseca Mosquera, Jonathan Rafael Franco Quiñonez; Rafael Enrique Castro Sandoval, Gustavo Enrique Alvarez Granadillo, Junior Enrique Vivas Colmenares, Adona and Enrique Ocando Garcia, Juan Fred Jesus Acosta Ysea.

Curator: Douglas Javier Contreras Arellano, Ivan Antonio Simonovis Aranguren

Official: Politachira Oscar Leonardo Aguillon Garces

Attached Officer: Jefferson Jesús Herrera Apolón, Jean Carlos Colmenares, Brando Nilson Paz Roches, Esteban Alfredo Miranda Cruz,

Civilian: Brian Rafael Perez Astudillo, Sergio De Jesus Vergara Gonzalez, Juan Jose Rendón Delgado, Orlando Alberto Laufer Hernandez, Carla Rosaura Da Silva Moreno, Alejandro Enrique Torres Rodriguez, Cesar Junior Altamar Sarmiento, Juan Jose Mujica Camacho, Yorman Antonio Araujo Torrealba and Juan De Jesus Castillo Cabrera.

Detective: Sondans Leroy Cortes Cortez,

From the removable memory that “by chance” they found is that the Public Prosecutor's Office says that “from the analysis carried out on the aforementioned Experticia” “it appears that the above-identified citizens are part of an organized crime group that associated themselves with the purpose of carrying out terrorist acts”.

Those interviewed by the Public Prosecutor's Office were: Deiby Alexander Segovia Rojas, Luis Erasmo Corona Lamon, Yhon Harrison Contreras Gomez, Marla Edelieth Gordillo Sepulveda, Carlos Alfonso Pinto Mujica, Rogdamir Alexander Cuenca Tovar, Mayling Alicia Bracho Moncada, José de los Reyes Torrealba Carrasco; minutes signed by Chief Inspector by Dgcim Abel Angola, official A/III Keyla Figueroa (Dgcim). In addition, a report submitted to DGCIM-DEIPC-PVT-036-036-20 whose data are not reported. Five criminal investigation proceedings where neither the content nor the officials signing them from SEBIN and FAES are indicated.

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