Lula wants to exchange classified information with Venezuelan intelligence services

Last week, after the visit of the dictator Nicolás Maduro to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brasilia, Venezuela and Brazil released a joint declaration in which they listed a series of goals to be fulfilled with the reestablishment of relations between the two countries.

Item 38 of the declaration points out that, at their meeting in Brasilia, the two leaders “emphasized the need to increase the articulation of intelligence agencies and strengthen the information networks of both countries”.

It is a commitment that generates fear due to the history of the Venezuelan intelligence services under Chavismo.

There are indications of interference by these organizations within Colombia. In March, former Colombian President Iván Duque (2018-2022) stated, at an event in Washington about Venezuela, that Maduro is using the reestablishment of relations with Bogotá, since the arrival of Gustavo Petro to the presidency last year, to obtain confidential information and exert pressure.

He argued that “what they call DNI intelligence cooperation [Direção Nacional de Inteligência da Colômbia] with Venezuelan intelligence is to facilitate Venezuelan spy operations in Colombia.”

“The intelligence cooperation between Colombia and Venezuela indicates that the Venezuelan regime is interested in knowing the historical work of Colombian intelligence [em parceria] with the United States, United Kingdom and other countries”, said Duque.

“It is already known that, at the express request of Nicolás Maduro in Colombia, investigations are beginning to be opened into generals who served the country and who faced terrorism in our country and terrorist groups that are being protected by Maduro in Venezuelan territory,” added the former president of Colombia.

In May 2020, when Duque was still president, the then Minister of Communications of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, declared that the presence of undercover agents in the Colombian intelligence and armed forces made it possible to obtain information to prevent an attack on the Miraflores palace, headquarters of the Venezuelan presidency.

“This is the result of the infiltrations we have within Colombian intelligence, within the intelligence of the Colombian armed forces, which allowed us to access many hours of recordings by Hernán Alemán [então deputado
venezuelano] and Cliver Alcalá Cordones [general reformado detido nos EUA, ambos supostos
participantes do complô]”, stated Rodriguez.

Cuba and Iran

Another worrying point in a future intelligence partnership between Brazil and Venezuela would be the fact that these services in the Chavista regime have an intimate relationship with another dictatorship: Cuba.

In a 2020 report by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, Venezuelan general Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, who was head of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin) until he went into exile in 2019, said that Cuban influence “is very high” in military commands , in intelligence and counterintelligence in Venezuela.

“They have offices in almost all ministries and in highly sensitive bodies, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sebin, the oil company PDVSA, the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), the Strategic Operational Command of the Armed Forces, the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Foreigners, ports and airports”, denounced Figuera.

In the same report, Julio Borges, head of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the parallel Venezuelan government of Juan Guaidó (2019-2022), pointed out that since the rise of chavismo, in the late 1990s, more than 220,000 Cubans have passed through Venezuela.

“Himself [ex-ditador cubano] Raúl Castro acknowledged that there were 20,000 [cubanos na Venezuela] dedicated to supporting Maduro. They have influence not only in the armed forces, but in sectors such as telecommunications, oil, national identity, culture, health,” said Borges.

Venezuelan intelligence services also have ties to Iran, one of the West’s great enemies. A 2020 report by the American think tank Atlantic Council highlighted the ties of key chavismo figures, such as former Venezuelan military counterintelligence chief Hugo Carvajal Barrios, and Hezbollah, a Lebanese fundamentalist group considered a terrorist group by the United States and which is supported by Tehran. .

“Venezuela’s strategic location in South America and at the crossroads of the Caribbean offers Iran and Hezbollah the ability to lessen its geographic disadvantage vis-à-vis the United States,” described the Atlantic Council.

“To hide this relationship, [Hugo] Chávez and later the Maduro regime provided dual identities to some Middle Eastern citizens, building an underground network that provides intelligence, training, funds, weapons, supplies and know-how to the Maduro regimes and [Bashar
al-]assad [ditador sírio apoiado pelo Irã]”, added the think tank.

Human rights

To add to this fear, last year, the UN Independent International Investigation Mission on Venezuela pointed out that the Sebin and the DGCIM are directly used by the Maduro regime “to repress dissent in the country”.

“With this, serious crimes and human rights violations are being committed, including acts of torture and sexual violence,” said Martha Valiñas, president of the UN mission, who argued that these actions by the intelligence services were not “isolated” acts. ”, but part of a repressive “machine” “orchestrated” by Maduro.

With this history, it causes at least concern that the Brazilian State is willing to share information and articulate partnerships with the Venezuelan intelligence services.

It is still not known exactly what the scope of this articulation would be and what information would be shared – the People’s Gazette requested further clarification from the Itamaraty on these points, but did not receive a response until the closing of this report.