Venezuela's former military intelligence chief goes missing ahead of US extradition

Venezuela's former military intelligence chief General Hugo Armando Carvajal has reportedly gone missing in Spain days after the court approved a request for his extradition to the United States on drug trafficking charges. Carvajal was allegedly accused of coordinating the transport of more than 5.6 tonnes of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico in 2006. He was arrested in Madrid back in April based on an arrest warrant from the US for drug trafficking. However, he was released after Spain's National Court rejected a US extradition request. 

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Carvajal was also stripped of his rank by President Nicolas Maduro's administration after he came out in support of Juan Guaido as Venezuela's acting president in February. The US Treasury officials have suspected him of providing support to drug trafficking by the FARC guerrilla group in Colombia and have been looking for him since then. According to the US justice department if Carvajal is convicted he might face between 10 years and life imprisonment. However, Carvajal had denied all the allegations. 

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Former military intelligence chief General Hugo Armando Carvajal

Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios is a Venezuelan diplomat and retired general. He was the head of military intelligence during Hugo Chavez's government from 2004 to 2011. The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) accused the former military intelligence chief of helping Colombian guerrilla FARC in its drug trafficking activities by protecting them from drug seizures, supplying arms and providing with Venezuelan official documents. He was arrested in Aruba on a US arrest warrant, however, President Maduro protested saying Carjaval had diplomatic immunity. As a protest, Venezuela closed its airspace to planes coming from Aruba and Curacao for several hours. He was released and flown back to Venezuela by private plane. 

(With agency inputs)

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