A newly unsealed indictment from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges that Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro struck a deal with former FARC guerrilla commanders to hand over explosives from Venezuela’s military stockpiles as payment for a drug-trafficking debt.
The 30-page document, reviewed by Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, centers on a 2013 meeting—shortly after President Hugo Chávez’s death—between Maduro, his wife Cilia Flores, and three senior FARC leaders: Rodrigo Londoño (alias “Timochenko”), Luciano Marín (alias “Iván Márquez”), and Seuxis Hernández (alias “Jesús Santrich”). FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was Colombia’s largest leftist guerrilla group before signing a 2016 peace accord with the government.
Prosecutors say the gathering was meant to settle an outstanding debt Maduro owed the group tied to joint drug-trafficking activities. While the indictment doesn’t specify the amount owed or where the meeting took place, it states that Maduro “agreed to sell explosives from Venezuelan military reserves” to the guerrillas, fully aware this would strengthen their ability to carry out armed attacks inside Colombia.
The timing is striking: in 2013, FARC was simultaneously negotiating a peace deal with Bogotá while, according to this account, its leadership was also securing military-grade explosives from Venezuela’s armed forces. The indictment further alleges that similar arms transfers, including Cuban-made landmines, continued until around 2015.
Maduro, arrested in Caracas on January 3 and extradited to the United States, has not responded to these allegations. You can read the full investigation at El Tiempo.
Source: Maduro habría negociado con ‘Timochenko’, ‘Iván Márquez’ y ‘Jesús Santrich’ la entrega de explosivos a las Farc para pagar una deuda por narcotráfico (eltiempo.com).
Image: IndigoValley, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).