On Thursday, Attorney General William Barr charged Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and the socialist’s cronies with narcoterrorism, drug trafficking, and other crimes. He also offered a $15 million bounty for Maduro’s capture and $10 million for the capture of other co-conspirators.
These criminal indictments pave the way for Venezuela’s freedom. The only thing left to do is for the Trump administration to capture these men, who are responsible for my homeland’s destruction.
Barr rightfully noted that Maduro and his accomplices have caused millions of Venezuelans' suffering and have also devastated American communities with their drugs. I fled my homeland of Venezuela because of the destruction caused by Maduro’s socialist regime, so I couldn’t have been more excited after the attorney general announced criminal charges against the dictator and his monstrous regime officials such as Diosdado Cabello Rondon and Vladimir Padrino Lopez. In fact, writing for the Washington Examiner, I proposed this latest move at least three months ago, and other experts have sought it for many years.
Some people might think this action makes America the “world’s policeman” and might be concerned by it as a result.
But it doesn’t. As Barr noted, these people broke American laws and attempted to import hundreds of metric tons of cocaine to the United States, an amount large enough to kill millions of people. It’s not policing the world to enforce U.S. law.
In Venezuela, it’s an open secret that Cabello Rondon leads the “Cartel of the Suns” and that many, including Lopez (Maduro’s minister of defense) and Maduro himself, get a cut of the drug-trafficking profits. Venezuelans know that the regime uses this revenue to pay off lower-ranking members of the military to keep power and enrich themselves.
I remember listening to late dictator Hugo Chavez on national television say how the Colombian Marxist narcoterrorist group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia was not a terrorist organization. Not only did Chavez dismiss its criminal activity, but he also welcomed its members to the presidential palace!
It’s an open secret no more.
The Department of Justice alleges that Maduro received $5 million in 2006 from the FARC when he was Chavez’s foreign affairs minister and that he conducted negotiations with the FARC to provide them with military-grade weapons in exchange for drug shipments. And perhaps the most severe of the many allegations against him and others is that drug trafficking was not just a “business” activity for them. It was also a deliberate strategy to kill Americans.
Clearly, the DOJ has evidence for these allegations. For years, experts and witnesses have documented the criminal activity of the Maduro regime. The problem for U.S. prosecutors is not how to find the evidence but how to capture the criminals — most of them live in Venezuela.
What the DOJ can and should do immediately is capture the indicted individuals who reside outside Venezuela. Cliver Antonio Alcala Cordones, one of those charged, resides in Colombia. The DOJ should request a capture order from Interpol and an extradition request with Colombian authorities.
Moreover, Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, another individual charged Thursday, was last seen in Spain in late 2019, where he supposedly escaped without the knowledge of Spanish authorities. American intelligence should attempt to locate him and bring him to justice.
The other regime members sought by American authorities are three important officials and Nicolas Maduro himself. Without these four leaders, the regime falls.
The attorney general should also request a capture order with Interpol for them. At some point, these criminals will travel outside Venezuela. Perhaps they’ll go to Russia or China to seek financial support or somewhere else. In any case, they will, in time, be in the airspace or territory of an allied nation. The U.S. must be ready to work with partners to capture them when that moment arrives.
Maduro should take note that the last time a foreign dictator was charged in the U.S. was in 1988, when Manuel Noriega of Panama was charged with very similar crimes. Noriega was captured in less than two years and ended up in an American prison.
I look forward to the day I can return to a free Venezuela and these criminals can be brought to justice. Justice is long overdue for the millions of Venezuelans who are suffering under this unelected, criminal socialist regime.
Daniel Di Martino (@DanielDiMartino) is a Venezuelan freedom activist and economist who fled Venezuela in 2016 and a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog.
Reprinted from the Washington Examiner. Read original article here.