Chilean prosecutors claim Venezuelan dictatorship is behind kidnapping and murder of exiled opposition lieutenant Ronald Ojeda

The prosecutor investigating the murder in Santiago de Chile of Venezuelan lieutenant in exile Ronald Ojeda assured this Thursday night, April 11, that the crime was carried out for political reasons and was organized from Venezuela.

"We maintain that this was organized, and the kidnapping and subsequent homicide was requested from Venezuela," said prosecutor Hector Barros, who is the head of the Organized Crime and Homicide Team of the Chilean Prosecutor's Office.

"So far, everything indicates that the motive is political. We have discarded all the theses; the only one that remains in force is the political motive," insisted the prosecutor in a Chilevisión interview.

Ronald Ojeda, a lieutenant in exile who had been imprisoned for political reasons in Caracas and had managed to escape, was kidnapped from his apartment in Santiago de Chile during the early morning of February 21 of this year. Ten days later, on March 1, Chilean authorities found his body buried under cement in a suitcase.

In a report, Chilevisión recounts how all the evidence suggests that the crime was carried out by members of Venezuela's General Directorate of Counterintelligence (DGCIM) in collaboration with the criminal gang Tren de Aragua, which has a wide presence in countries such as Chile, Colombia and the United States.

As part of the evidence, the Attorney General's Office informed that two of the perpetrators of the crime, although they lived in Chile, had returned to Venezuela after the murder of Ronald Ojeda.

The security cameras' footage of the kidnapping shows that the operation was carried out by experienced men, probably with military training.

Finally, the Chilean prosecutor told Chilevisión that he remains attentive to the Venezuelan regime's response and its willingness to collaborate with Chilean authorities.