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Spain at Odds With US on Venezuela's Former Spy Chief

Martin Arostegui

   MADRID - For weeks, Spain has rejected repeated U.S. requests for the
   extradition of former Venezuelan spy chief Hugo Carvajal, wanted in the
   United States on drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges.
   Now, the reasons for Madrid's refusal are emerging: he is cooperating
   in Spain's efforts to mediate Venezuela's drawn out political crisis.
   Spanish court documents say Carvajal was operating under "directions
   and orders from the Presidency of Venezuela," and analysts say Spain's
   protection of him may be influenced by his importance as an
   intelligence asset to the Spanish Foreign Intelligence Service, CNI.
   The weight of the charges levied by the United States is hefty. The
   indictment, sent to Voice of America by the Department of Justice,
   alleges that Carvajal "worked with terrorists and other drug
   traffickers to dispatch thousands of kilograms of cocaine" to the
   United States. U.S. Justice department officials say that to accomplish
   this, he worked with the leadership of the militant Revolutionary Armed
   Forces of Colombia, FARC, during his near decade-long tenure as head of
   Venezuela's powerful military counterintelligence service, DGCIM.
   Carvajal and his alleged shady dealings have long been on the U.S.
   radar. In 2008, the United States Department of the Treasury accused
   Carvajal of assisting the FARC in protecting Colombia's Arauca
   Department, a region known as a center of cocaine production, and
   providing the FARC with official Venezuelan government identification.
   FARC used profits from its drug trafficking networks to fund its
   decades-long insurgency against the Colombian government. The United
   States designated the FARC as a terrorist group in 1997.
   The Department of Justice further alleged that Carvajal was a member of
   the Cartel De Los Soles. According to the indictment, the cartel is a
   group of high-ranking Venuezelan officials who not only cooperate with
   the drug traffickers, but also provide heavily armed security, military
   grade weapons, and intelligence to protect some of these drug
   shipments.

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