Ronald Leandro Ojeda Moreno: Chile alerts Interpol about the kidnapping of a former Venezuelan military officer in Santiago

Chile’s Interior Undersecretary Manuel Monsalve said Wednesday afternoon that the government has requested an international alert from Interpol, in addition to protecting the country’s borders, following the 3:15 a.m. kidnapping of a former Venezuelan military officer. Yesterday morning in his apartment in the municipality of Independência, in the northern region of Santiago. According to a video spread on social networks, the incident was carried out by four masked persons who, according to the first version, presented themselves as officers of the investigative police.

The former military man has been identified as Ronald Leandro Ojeda Moreno, with no information available on how long he had been living in Chile. Similarly, the government did not confirm whether or not he received political refugee status, as Monsalve specified that this information could not be made public by law.

The investigation by both the Public Ministry and the Anti-Kidnapping Brigade (BIPE) of the investigative police is classified as confidential, like all kidnapping cases. “As many hypotheses have been raised, the government also takes charge of all possible hypotheses,” the undersecretary said in a statement obtained by La Moneda after meeting with the ministers of interior and justice, Carolina Toha and Luis Cordero, and foreign ministers. Minister Alberto Van Klaveren. One of these hypotheses, put forward by former Venezuelan Commissioner Iván Simonovís, now a rival, points to an operation organized by the Venezuelan Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM).

according to the newspaper third, Ojeda is one of 33 soldiers who, on January 24, were expelled from the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) on charges of conspiracy, as reported by Vladimir Padrino, the defense minister of the Nicolás Maduro government.

The former army man’s kidnapping took place on the 14th floor of the building where he lived and was recorded by security cameras. A few hours later, in the Municipality of Rença, a car was found, which may have been related to the crime, inside which was a vest, possibly belonging to the Investigative Police (PDI), and a bulletproof helmet. The investigation is led by Prosecutor Héctor Barros, who coordinates the Organized Crime and Homicide Team (ECOH) in the Metropolitan Region, a unit that was created in November due to the unprecedented increase in this type of crime in Chile.

Monsalve cautions that “what matters in these cases is the protection of the physical integrity of the ultimate victim and his family. Therefore, we must respect the secret nature of the investigation decided by the Public Ministry. And he specified that during the morning of this Wednesday the Government had asked the Carabineros and the Investigative Police (PDI) to reinforce border controls. He also informed that the Ministry of Defense had been requested to strengthen the control of the maritime police in charge of the ports at various points of the border; To the Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC), which supervises the airports, and also to the heads of the armed forces, which are deployed in the regions of Arica, Tarapacá and Antofagasta in the far north of Chile.

Senator Francisco Chajuan, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Commission, has said that Ojeda’s case “is a sensitive situation. We are in constant contact with the government. It is a fact that will be investigated quickly and with great rigor due to the various theses that have been circulated. Should be done.

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