Daniel Lozano
Updated Saturday, March 9, 2024-17:45
Latin America The end of the rebel lieutenant: executed and buried under cement 5,000 kilometers from Venezuela
Repression Chilean police find buried body of Venezuelan lieutenant Ojeda
"I want my husband to be remembered as a hero, because that is what he was. I want it to be clear to them that he has been a martyr. My husband has been a victim only for wanting the freedom of Venezuela."
The widow of Lieutenant Ronald Ojeda,
a Venezuelan rebel soldier kidnapped, executed and buried
inside a suitcase under a cement slab in Santiago, Chile, led the farewell of a small group of family and friends at the Parque Canaán Cemetery in the Chilean capital.
A funeral that took place on Friday thanks to the solidarity of several Venezuelan funeral home workers, because the couple, who have a six-year-old child, lived modestly with her income from
a small beauty business
and the work of security carried out by the murdered soldier.
A funeral that also mixed
pain, indignation and uncertainty
, because 17 days after the operation of a paramilitary command that forcibly extracted the Venezuelan lieutenant from his home, no progress has been made in the capture of the material murderers and in the
identity of those who They ordered his death
.
Of course, the widow has no doubt: "It's an open secret, everyone knows who the culprit is... Behind this is the Government of Venezuela."
This 32-year-old soldier starred in
a film escape
in 2017, one of the few who have managed to escape from a prison during Chavismo.
It was of no use to him to have the political refuge granted by the Chilean Government.
Two accusations of conspiracy fell on this "patriot with a libertarian spirit", as his friends defined him, the last one in January, the same one that unjustly led the Spanish-Venezuelan activist Rocío San Miguel to the terrible Helicoide prison.
"Do not be accomplices, you cannot be accomplices. I ask all Chileans not to allow the name of their country to be tarnished, to let the truth come out, to
defend their sovereignty
," cried the widow, who has requested protective measures from the Court. Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
The rebel lieutenant's funeral coincided with the first public statement by the Chilean president,
Gabriel Boric
: "It is a very serious case. It is a
vile murder
, those responsible and the organization behind it have been identified."
Boric made reference in this way to the Aragua Train, the Venezuelan criminal organization that has spread its tentacles from the Tocorón prison to the entire continent.
The 17-year-old minor, the first detainee who collaborated in the burial operation, is accused of belonging to the transnational gang, as well as
Walter Rodríguez
, whom the Prosecutor's Office accuses of being one of the leaders of the Aragua Train.
The participation of the Aragua Train soldiers in the operation to kidnap and kill Ojeda does not contradict the suspicions of the lieutenant's family and fellow fighters.
According to the images obtained from the moment of the kidnapping, four men equipped with helmets, balaclavas, bulletproof vests and armed with pistols forcibly
took him away
with the same tactical procedure used by the special security forces of the Bolivarian revolution.