Hugo Armando ‘El Pollo’ Carvajal, former Venezuelan general | Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Reproduction

The former Venezuelan general Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, known as “El Pollo,” has agreed to cooperate with investigations by United States authorities.

Accused of leading the Cartel de los Soles, a criminal organization formed by high-ranking Venezuelan officials, Carvajal is considered one of the central figures in the connection between the Chavista regime, drug trafficking, and the financing of political movements abroad.

According to documents and sources cited by the Spanish website « The Objective » on Friday, October 17, Carvajal admitted to being part of the cartel and cooperating with the Colombian guerrilla group FARC in sending large quantities of cocaine to North America.

In June of this year, he pleaded guilty to four crimes—drug trafficking, narcoterrorism, possession, and conspiracy to use firearms—before the Southern District Court of New York.

According to the North American Public Prosecutor’s Office, the former intelligence chief under Hugo Chávez “used cocaine as a weapon, flooding New York and other North American cities with poison.”

The accusation holds that the Cartel de los Soles operated within the Venezuelan Armed Forces and used state structures to transport and protect tons of drugs destined for the US.

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro leads the celebration of the 22nd anniversary of Hugo Chávez’s return to power, after a failed coup attempt in 2002 – 13/4/2024 | Photo: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters

Carvajal’s confession paves the way for a possible significant reduction in his sentence, which could range from life imprisonment to about twenty years.

The court has authorized a final hearing to evaluate the information that the former general is willing to provide in exchange for judicial benefits.

According to « The Objective », Carvajal “is willing to tell everything (https://theobjective.com/espana/2025-10-17/exjefe-espias-chavistas-financiado-izquierda/)”, including details about the agreements between Chavismo and the FARC and the transfer of resources to left-wing parties and leaders in various countries. Sources close to the former military official claim that he delivered unpublished documents about political financing networks associated with the Venezuelan government.

Venezuela Financed Left-Wing Movements Around the World.

Carvajal was extradited from Spain to the US in 2023, after spending two years on the run. During this period, he submitted a seven-page document to the Justice system in which he stated that “the Venezuelan government illegally financed left-wing political movements around the world for at least 15 years.”

The former director of Military Intelligence and Counterintelligence also wrote that, while in office, he received “a large quantity of reports indicating that this international financing was occurring.” In the same text, he listed leaders and parties allegedly benefited by resources sent from Caracas:

+ [Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil);
+ Néstor Kirchner (Argentina);
+ Evo Morales (Bolivia);
+ Fernando Lugo (Paraguay);
+ Ollanta Humala (Peru);
+ Mel Zelaya (Honduras);
+ Gustavo Petro (Colombia);
+ Five Star Movement (Italy); and
+ Podemos Party (Spain).

According to the document, “all of them were mentioned as recipients of money sent by the Venezuelan government.” Carvajal also claimed that the practice continued under the command of Nicolás Maduro, who used the state oil company PDVSA as the main source of resources.