The third head of Venezuela’s military counter-intelligence directorate has been jailed and charged with terrorism

This happened with the third chief of DGCIM, Army Brigadier General, Ilderdorf Ibarra TalupeWho Until March 18, 2023, he was the Director of Operations of the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM). Moises, as he was nicknamed in the institution, was previously the chief of the Regional Military Counterintelligence Command No. 1 of the Western Region until August 29, 2022. About a year ago, as the third head of the DGCIM at the national level, they removed him from his post, put him in the DGCIM prison in Fuerte Tiuna and accused him of terrorism.

it all started then A high-ranking member of DGCIM was censured at the national level for covering up drug trafficking activities in Zulia, The criminal case is in the Prosecutor’s Office with file number MP-75958-2023, and file number 4CT-S-052-2023, of the Fourth Court of First Instance in control function with jurisdiction in cases involving related crimes. Terrorism. He was charged with terrorism financing, criminal cooperation, use of influence, among other charges.

“Nobody wants to talk because they are afraid,” a friend of Ibarra tells Infobae, who asked to remain anonymous. “All this happened because Ildorf gave a report to General Iván Hernández Dala about the irregular activities and illegal relations of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Granco Arteaga, “South of the lake, in the area of ​​Guajira and the east coast of Zulia.”

When asked what type of activities and with whom, he replied that with the Colombian guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN) and those groups called TANCOL (Armed Terrorist Drug Traffickers), where Ibarra argued against Granco and hundreds of Evidence was found. When the General presented evidence, DGCIM General Director, MG(EJ) Iván Hernández Dala interrogated Granco, who also remained in custody at the Boleta offices, subject to an investigation, but he released him as was, Granco in his Pass returned to press charges and months later they put Ibarra in jail.

“General Ibarra is ill with a valve problem in his heart. Meetings with them are only through glass, they do not allow them to have physical contact with their families, they talk through phones.

“The worst thing that is happening in the armed forces (FANB) is that Granco, who is a low level officer, has so much power that he imposes himself on an area chief with the rank of general. This has caused great irritation among the officers, because even a major general has to serve as a subordinate to a lieutenant colonel of the National Guard like Granko.

Elaborating on what happened that caused General Ibarra to go to prison, he says that “whenever there was a case in Zulia related to drug trafficking, or very committed naval soldiers, in some cases, drugs, weapons, and the ELN was always the name of Granco appeared. The most serious cases were from south of Lake Maracaibo, where drugs come from the Sierra de Perijá to leave for the Caribbean islands.

Surname Moises was “concerned, because he was ordered to release drug traffickers, cover up cases and distort procedures, He knew it could end badly and the rope would break at the thinnest point.” I didn’t know that in the game of good and bad, which is used in police jargon, Granco always appears as the bad guy, but he is not the only one.

He claims that this happened when his friend Moises took over as commander of the Western Counterintelligence Region (RICIM). “General Hernández Dala appointed Ibarra as Director of Operations on August 29, 2023; Although Granco returned to his post, war had already been declared with Ibarra. Additionally, the G2’s Cuban military counterintelligence advisors, who are “consultants” in the DGCIM, recommended nominating Ibarra to replace the DGCIM’s deputy director, who had health problems.

“It should be understood that Granco, head of the Directorate of Special Affairs (DAE) and head of Hernández Dala’s office, did not want the appointment to be made. In this way he fabricated a story against General Ibarra to discredit and defund him, using the Public Ministry, where he has many influences.

He insists that it be made clear that General Ibarra was initially detained under the pretext that he would hold talks with sectors of the opposition. “His own DGCIM colleagues came to Moises and asked him to hand over his phone, without the slightest respect for the fact that he is a general who has served the institution faithfully; “They raided his house and everyone who worked with him.”

“On that occasion they confined the General to the operations offices, that is, to his bedroom on the third floor. Today he is in the prison he established in Fuerte Tiuna.

The file against Ibarra, former regional head of the DGCIM, had the involvement of “DAE investigators, subordinates of Granco Arteaga, and led by Major Jeanpierre de Jesús Soto alias (César), who carried out actions with the Prosecutor’s Offices No. 17 and 55 with national competition.”

Neither family nor friends can visit GB Ibarra TalupE, “He is isolated, probably because he has a good reputation in DGCIM and the armed forces. Imagine how absurd that is, you are not in touch.”

On July 30, 2023, Division General Luis Rafael Laiza Linares, who was the Deputy Director of DGCIM, reportedly took his own life, so General Ibarra followed him in the chain of command as Chief of Operations, but initially He was detained with the argument that he was related to criminal gangs.

He revealed that “Commanders who arrive in the areas get benefits and that is why they do not want to leave. Ibarra was worried when he was removed from Resim but later calmed down when he was appointed to the third position in the DGCIM in Caracas. One day she told me that Granco was making her life miserable. ‘Now it’s worse because when I reported him it turned into a fight with him,’ she told me sadly. He told me that Granco had suffered an internal blow, because not only had he denounced him, but so had another general, Jorge Luis Gómez Pimentel, president of the Venezuelan Guiana Logistics Corporation, and who had been arrested for PDVSA conspiracy. it was done. Likewise, the colonel who was in the investigation and who was imprisoned by a businessman and friend of Hernández Dala and Granco Arteaga. “They weren’t alone, there were about five of them and they all ended up in jail.”

On the other hand, the work team that General Ibarra Talupé had in Zulia was destroyed and the investigations carried out by that group disappeared.