Tarek William Saab: “Comanditos” intended to generate a civil war
Statements by the Attorney General of Venezuela Tarek William Saab on investigations related to the most recent acts of destabilization that took place in the country after the presidential elections of last July 28th. teleSUR
Transcript
00:00We go live to Venezuela at this moment, as the Attorney General Tarek William Saab is
00:06giving statements at the moment.
00:08So, the Prosecutor's Office has been developing some investigations after the July 28th election
00:21that according to all official reports claimed, well said, that President Nicolás Maduro
00:37is the official president, and as we have been telling during this whole year and also
00:48in the 2023, particularly from what we have known about the fraudulent primaries, they
01:00were saying that there was coming a kind of some violent actions planned by the far right
01:16wing.
01:18We at the Council of State and the Council of Defense on Monday, presided by President
01:29Nicolás Maduro, we could, well it's good to remember that description we made related
01:36to a long briefing, a long 40 page briefing, which revealed how in time and place, after
01:48the report of the National Electoral Council, the only power based on constitutional law,
01:58which is required to issue the results, the electoral results, between 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
02:11On July 29th, and also during the July 30th, there was unleashed a wave of violence sponsored.
02:28What I am going to recall today is extremely important, it has to do with what we said
02:33on Monday, before the Council of State and the Council of Defense of the nation.
02:43That unleashed a violent wave, which was applied by the so-called comanditos, who were made
02:56up by criminals, drug addicts, who were used to burn down educated centers, health centers,
03:11comprehensive test centers, headquarters of the National Electoral Council of Mayors office,
03:20and our investigations point out that such criminals wanted to make a bloodbath in the
03:30country and to brought about a civil war, and they couldn't do it thanks to the police
03:39corps to the prosecutor's office, we could dismantle this action, and we could dismantle
03:48and stop those actions in less than 48 hours, but I have to recall that all the 25 deaths
03:58are in charge of these comanditos, and there is no single allegation,
04:06past three weeks have passed by from these regrettable actions, and
04:18so any single claim from a victim, all victims
04:28have regrettably murdered by this far-right factor,
04:37and even from among the 25 people who were killed, they murdered two officials of the Bolivarian
04:46National Guard. I want to highlight that everything that I am telling now is grounded on
04:5431 expertise audits, including the technical examination, and of several technical
05:11aspects of right as biological tech expertise,
05:20so up to see protocols among others, and these all determined the use, the legitimate use
05:33of criminal factors attached to plans and criminals who didn't care as we could see on the
05:43video, and in all, we possessed 170 videos and 150 photos of all these perpetrators that
05:59incriminate, that evidenced the actions by the far-right factor, and I warn that it is regrettable
06:12that media outlets, international media outlets said that these 25 deaths were from peaceful
06:24protests, and they weren't peaceful protests, but they were violent acts, and these commanditos
06:33killed the innocent people, and they wanted to bring about, to burst out a civil war, as they
06:41want to take over the country, whatever it takes, and I said that the education system was really
06:54affected, 34 colleges were destroyed, headquarters of the National Electoral Council, headquarters of
07:06several political institutions, 38 substations were burned down, 12 patrol cars were destroyed,
07:1815 motorbikes, police motorbikes, and 192 people were injured, and 97 people
07:28injured belong to the security corps, 32 to the National Guard, so tell me,
07:38how can we describe these acts as peaceful protests, and these are criminal and terrorist acts
07:50led by criminal groups attached to this neo-Nazi far-right wing, as the
08:00Eldiano gang, among others, and the important thing is that the prosecutor's office has been
08:08detained, a lot of criminals convicted and confessed, and so we are charging these criminals
08:20as terrorism crimes, and this preamble was necessary because the disguises must be
08:32taken off, and there mustn't be lies about these criminal actions that our homeland
08:44has been suffering, byproducts of the insanity of the neo-Nazi far-right,
08:53daughter of the neo-Nazi, and so they wanted to install all this hate,
09:06and they already said before elections that elections weren't important, but
09:13these violent actions were the target, and so let's see the actors who,
09:21they were just disgusting the actions that these people have committed,
09:30crimes, and so the prosecutor's office have determined that subjects attached to
09:40to criminal gangs,
09:46in which we presented some evidence, some videos of the trained Eldiano gang, they were involved
09:56to, we are going to show three confessions
10:01of three, three subjects who were processed for crimes,
10:15and they have been processing for murder, kidnapping, rapes, and what do you think would be
10:25the link? Well, it was a murderer and right hand of Leopoldo Lopez,
10:38known as alias Gilbert Caro, because that name seems like an alias too,
10:48they were linked to this subject, these gangsters to
10:59produce, to commit some crimes after July 28th elections,
11:06and we are going to talk about the detention of another subject
11:13whose weapons were seized, and these
11:23these weapons were about to be used on Saturday's plan, and so first,
11:33the first one has to do with
11:41has to do with Martinez, and this subject is detained, charged with kidnapping and murder,
11:52and he confessed how he talked with murderer Gilbert Caro, and we have some
12:00conversations, telephone conversations, in which they mentioned how they planned to commit some
12:09crimes. Let's see it. My name is Lujan Martinez, my ID 13 million, and I am
12:25detained in Rodeo prison for kidnapping and rape. I am at prison since 2017,
12:44and in this call, he told me, well, I talked to Leopoldo Lopez,
12:52and I was, I recognized him as a leader, and in those days,
13:05the, we faced a hunger strike, and we asked him to tell us some words, and Leopoldo,
13:16and so Leopoldo said that he, he supported us,
13:27and he told me that everything I need, he will provide it for, for me,
13:35and he said that that money was sent by Leopoldo,
13:39and the other criminals were with us,
13:47and 15 days after the strike, his phone was seized, and after that time, in 2019,
14:00when he was released, I, I contacted him by Instagram, and we were talking, and Gilbert Caro
14:15told me about political stuff, and the every day of what was happening before elections,
14:23earlier elections, he tell, he told me that everything is fine, and that,
14:30and that when he was the first minister of justice, he would help, help me.
14:39After elections, on July 31st, he told me that I had a mission, that he needed people, youngsters
14:51to, to go to Alpon in, at the headquarters of the National Electoral Council to burn that down,
15:04and that I have to order those people to burn down this, this venue,
15:12and so, he wanted to collect people in prison, from prisons, to go on strike,
15:24strike, and not to recognize the results of the National Electoral Council's own elections,
15:31and so, he wanted to collect, to collect people to go, to take to the streets with weapons,
15:42with everything, to confront the National Guard, and all were financed by them,
15:53with Riopoldo at top, and that I have to get people from whatever, from whatever place,
16:05wherever, and so the,
16:13and so, I told him that
16:15they are paying, they are paying us off for getting people, for getting to riots,
16:25and in the penitentiary, I just said I was looking for people there, and
16:33on, on behalf of Gilbert, well, count on that, I will go on that mission, and I was,
16:48and I just got contact with Petare's people, and, and just, I received the money from,
16:57and from November up to today, I just got around 20 grand dollars,
17:15and, and Raton, and Raton and other people got money too,
17:27so, all of this was led, was managed by Riopoldo Lopez, and
17:41I received $5,000 by Gilbert for doing all these crimes, for committing all these crimes.
17:50It is really disgusting, all this, a gift that he received,
17:59thousands of dollars he received, and nothing, nothing, nothing more surprised us,
18:08because he just tell us exactly what happened, so let's do the math, that this
18:17right political, this far-right political group that stemming from,
18:26from again, and I have told that in several press briefings, so, from which comes the
18:382020 Venezuela from an evil, an evil movement, who were the intellectual authors of the media
18:52entrepreneur coup against Commander and President Hugo Chavez. They read the communique
19:02earlier, Carmona, on April 10th,
19:08went to life by the media, when Jorge, with alongside Capriles, and Leopoldo Lopez,
19:21launched that proclamation earlier,
19:27earlier the Carmonazo, and so, all the people were training, because the imperialism
19:38didn't, didn't feel comfortable with other criminals, and so, they trained all that,
19:47all those babies, sons of Pinochet and Mussolini, who feel, feel a lot of hate for popular,
20:00for popular masses, and so, let's recall those Guarimbas of 2003, and of what we could see
20:15on in 2013, when they didn't want to recognize the victory of President Nicolás Maduro,
20:23and those Guarimbas of 2017, all those people came from that, and they are terrible,
20:33terrible, evil, and way of seeing the Venezuelan people, those who is the main
20:42counselor of this neo-Nazi group, for this escalation, is a murderer, as a Gilbert,
20:51it is a crime chain, he even was posted as a parliamentarian, he was really involved
21:01in all the violent actions of 2017, and if this prosecutor's office was, wasn't waiting here,
21:12if we were, if we, if we came back to that corrupted prosecutor's office of the past,
21:25this would be, the Guarimbas would occur again, would have occurred again, and so,
21:36the murder, the murders from these comanditos would reach a huge figure,
21:45so, and it is there, the confession of these monsters, known as Alias Valles,
21:56who is in prison for kidnapping, rape, and he has been prosecuted by multiple crimes,
22:06as extortion, forgery,
22:15and so, these are the political operators of this criminal phase, which unfortunately,
22:21we have defeated, and he mentioned another subject, known as Rolando Fernando Mendoza Castillo,
22:31he is, he is Alias Santa Rosa, he was also invited to participate in violent and terrorist
22:41actions, and he reviewed that he was contacted and linked by this Alias Valles, by directing
22:52instructions of G. Belcar, and I want to recall that this subject, who are, you are about to see,
23:01Alias Santa Rosa, was prosecuted in 2016,
23:08charged with the, charged with murder, with murder, all these are murders, and let's see the video now,
23:17let's see the confession of Alias Santa Rosa.
23:24My name is Ronald Mendoza, I am Alias Santa Rosa, I am recruited in the penitentiary center
23:34in Martinez, on July 31st, after elections, we were in the house, and me and some partners, we
23:45were hanging over, hanging out, and they offered me that, to help them, to go to the streets, to
23:54commit, to commit some, some vandalism, and to disregard the National Electoral Council's
24:04results, and to help him collect people, and I, and so they were giving me money.
24:16Again, it appears the name of this criminal, G. Belcar,
24:23and so we have opened a new file to him, because of all these elements,
24:29and so we are doing justice, justice, an immediate justice, on real time,
24:38and they mentioned another subject, Alias Raton,
24:46this criminal was contacted by the gangster, by the instructions of Gilbert
24:56Caro, and this Alias El Raton,
25:03has a creepy record, in 2016, he was detained for, for drug trafficking, for,
25:17for voluntary manslaughter, and this Alias El Raton, known, Alias,
25:28Alias, known as the Uribana, known by the Uribana gangster,
25:37so let's see the confession of Alias El Raton,
25:40and he was linked by Gilbert Caro.
25:50My name is Nelson Alejandro Barreto Reyes, my ID 2720, I am Alias El Raton,
26:00I am at the Penitentiary Center,
26:04and I knew, I knew him at the Carabobo Prison,
26:15on July 31st, Luis Yanez called me, and told me that he, that he needed me to,
26:23to get people to cause some disturbances in the streets, and he offered me some money,
26:34so it is very clear, the names that, that appeared constantly, and who were the,
26:44who were the masterminds, and they told that they were going to the end,
26:50and there it is, the names, we have the names,
26:55people attached to criminal, terrorist, delinquents, so no one must be surprised that,
27:05because Gonzalez Urrutia is attached alongside Leopoldo Castillo,
27:13when they were both diplomats in El Salvador, they were involved with the deaths of seven
27:21religious people, and it is publicly said, no one must be surprised,
27:30so this subject, Alias El Raton, named Nelson Barreto,
27:39and they were talking with Gilbert Caro, for you to have an idea, we have
27:47made the telephone conversation, we have recorded telephone conversations,
27:56and we have, we are going to show a video call by Gilbert Caro and Nelson,
28:05in which they talked about the meeting with Maria Machado, and this team,
28:13this team was involved in the actions, in the crimes, in the acts of July 31st,
28:25and so they, they asked for support for Gilbert Caro, for some, to provide him,
28:35to provide them some logistics, and to Alias Valle, he is on a WhatsApp group,
28:46to support the presidential candidate of neo-Nazi, Mundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina team,
28:55we will about, about to see this, these telephone conversations, let's go, let's see.
29:06There you can see the chats, the conversations between Gilbert, Gilbert Caro, and the gangster
29:20Alias Valle, in which they are chatting broadly about how the actions were, were on July 31st,
29:34they were estimated on July 30, a bloodbath in the country, in the country,
29:43and fortunately they were stopped on real time, the plan was dismantled,
29:50and we can see the second screenshot, in which, as I said, these criminals talk about
30:02catching, about getting some, some people to, for committing criminal acts,
30:12and as we can see here, the WhatsApp group that they were, they created
30:17for this sir, Luis Humberto Yanez,
30:25Alias Valle, linked with the whole mob, to support the candidacy with criminal records,
30:40violating human rights, and Mundo Gonzalez, so I think it is crystal clear,
30:49with the due audits, examinations, technical examinations,
30:56on the telephone calls, besides the confessions of these criminals, who have been detained,
31:06and they continue talking, and confessing of what was about to happen,
31:11but it's not about, it's not enough of what I mentioned, we have to recall that Gilbert Caro,
31:20he highlighted as a terrorist, he was an outstanding terrorist, first he was detained
31:27in 2017, for bearing weapons on his car, in 2019, he participated in vandalizing actions,
31:35to alter the public order, in 2021, he was involved in criminal actions in Caracas,
31:46and he fulfilled, he was sentenced for murdering an innocent person, so let's see his political
31:59leaders, his political heads, it is unbelievable how someone could go side by side to a murderer,
32:15to a murderer, and present him, introduce him as almost a prophet, because he said that he was,
32:27he was introduced as a successor of all saints, imagine how much insanity in that,
32:37let's see the case of Cartagón case,
32:43involved, attached to all this I have mentioned, it is something despicable right now,
32:51well the president of the republic, Nicolás Maduro, and other justice organs, have disseminated
33:00that the distribution of Cartagón drug to make mad people, and well you have seen all videos,
33:15we have disseminated lots of videos, they just broadcasted live
33:26how they murdered and burned down buildings, murdered people, but the president of the
33:36republic, the day of the council of the state, on Monday, when we were transmitting
33:47on social media, the video that the prosecutor's office did, well we were censured,
33:58and we were banned from TikTok, it is something disgusting, but these people,
34:04these criminals, when they video recorded how they burned, and how they launched to hate species,
34:14and the urging for killing, and murdering people, the owners of these platforms of X,
34:23they don't ban them, so what are we talking about, what regulations, what community regulations are
34:31we talking about, if these terrible things are happening, if these criminals are talking about
34:42exterminating, and killing, and they aren't banned, and they are against the honor of the
34:48Venezuelan family, I want to highlight what Cartagón did, damages to the body, well the drug
35:01is alongside methamphetamine, and they really stimulate the system, the nervous system,
35:13it increases and prolongs the alert capacity, and it suppresses hunger, among others,
35:24so on the Petares Parish, Jose Luis Miranda Consuera was arrested, and he was a Colombian
35:37citizen, and he had 40,000 units of Cartagón drug, and that person was presented before the
35:55court, and the prosecutor's office charged him with drug trafficking,
36:04so let's see him on the photo, to see who is the subject,
36:14and he is known as Jose Luis Miranda Consuera, there you see him, he is a Colombian citizen,
36:21he was arrested in Petares, with 4,000 units of Cartagón drug, I have to mention that
36:32this subject, according to ongoing investigations, he belonged to the Chido,
36:44and they intended to use this drug to perpetrate terrorist acts in an opposition action on Saturday
36:57August 17, he doesn't care about drugging some people, and causing deaths and injuries,
37:08and then blamed the Venezuelan state for it, and so this subject was arrested, this subject,
37:16as the three gangsters before, they were detained, and again, they were processed
37:26for the crimes that I have mentioned, and we are continuing on investigations,
37:33and let's see the photo of the seized drug, the 4,000 units, there you can see the drug,
37:46it is unbelievable, these people don't mind anything, everything with the purpose of
37:55damaging us, of damaging the Venezuelan people, I want to highlight that the prosecutor's office
38:04has this subject, as you can see, he is detained, there you can see him, the drug
38:12has been seized,
38:22and everything that I am showing you doesn't end here, I want to point out that everything I am
38:30showing is part of an ongoing investigation, which in the upcoming days, we are going to reveal the
38:39advances, these are the two cases that I wanted to show you, with the important preamble,
38:46decisive preamble of the actions of these terrorist groups, I reiterated here that the 25 murders
38:59are the responsibility of these so-called comanditos attached to the far-right sector,
39:11who didn't care killing these 25 innocents, and there is a question, good afternoon,
39:20journalist Luis Guillermo Garcia from Telesur, thank you very much,
39:31I am Venezuelan, but I represent an international channel, I appreciate,
39:42well, there are about three questions I want to ask,
39:46well, because I have been chatting with some people, and I have been collecting some
39:55questions from people, and there are three fundamental questions on the media,
40:05you presented recently a thorough report before the council of state and the council of defense,
40:14and after that, we have some doubts, what reactions do state authorities have regarding this, and
40:29do you plan to present this report to the United Nations, and concerning the cases that you have
40:39mentioned, of the 25 deaths, and an important figure of injured, and the majority are victims,
40:52officials, or militants of the Bolivarian process, and none of these victims belong to the far-right
41:02opposition, so this calls the attention, so who are behind all these crimes,
41:10you have mentioned some, but it seems like a mixed action, and so in that sense,
41:22are the intellectual, are the material and intellectual authors be sentenced, and so it
41:29would be very useful if these fatal crimes are attached to the responsible of the cyber attack,
41:42and I don't know if the prosecutor's office has been the victim of the attack,
41:48well, thank you very much for all your questions,
41:52for your questionnaire, that collects the
42:01colleagues, well, we are going to present alongside the true forces, this briefing,
42:10and we are documenting, and updating, the prosecutor's office is updating this data,
42:20and we added the text, and the annexes, that have to do with the sequence of time,
42:30place, of each of the incidents, and the photos, and the third file of photos,
42:42obviously, to the international organizations, we are going to present, and I confirm you,
42:49that we are going to present a summary of all this, we are going to go to all international
42:55forums, to tell the truth of Venezuela, relating this incident, with all evidence,
43:03that we have, I could mention the United Nations, the penal court of the Hague,
43:15with all the evidence, that we have, and we are going to do it, because as I said,
43:24that the audits, the expertise audits, are just irreversible, and regarding the
43:37report presented this Monday, before the council of state of the nation,
43:44obviously, has to do with the second question, you were pointing out about the responsible,
43:53of course, they are attached to political actors of the right wing, they were the authors, who
44:04sponsored, before July 28th, I would say, that since October 2023, when they did, they committed
44:15the fraudulent primaries, and I had evidence, that they placed, that a fake figure of attendees there,
44:34and after the July 28th, they bought a website, they purchased a website on internet,
44:44in which they posted fake tallies, in which dead people vote, and they thought,
44:53they could repeat that, that criminal actions, criminal actions of last year, and obviously,
45:03all these crimes were uncovered, and today, the electoral chamber, and the
45:12prosecutor's office, is participating, and the attorney, we are just all doing the
45:20the correspondence, the due examinations,
45:28and to validate all those investigations, that validate the victory of president Nicolás Maduro,
45:37and all these have to do, all these criminal actions, are related to these far-right
45:46actors, and the names are Elmundo González, Maria Corina Machado, and we have evidence,
45:54and I communicate that, we have more evidence, about the linking between
46:00Victoria López, with Gilbert Castro, and they were searching to put into practice,
46:09all more criminal actions,
46:24the majority of the opposition sector, who participated on elections, who weren't relating to
46:33violent actions, are completely disappointed about each of these actions.
46:44Well, they have to be psychopaths, to continue with this, and I would conclude, that we
46:52opened the due files, and we have elements, that prove the time, place, in which it occurred,
47:06after I just gave a press conference, detailing everything,
47:17and they placed their plan to attack,
47:23to attack this, what, well, unfortunately, we have been resilient, obviously, there were
47:30cyber attacks, against the prosecutor's office, and we have been, we have been recovering,
47:37numerous of accounts, and the country is completely in calm, everything is going normal,
47:47and it is a big point, in favor of our guard, and in favor of our Venezuelan,
47:54Venezuelan state, regarding defending the human rights, peace, and thank you very much.
48:00We were listening to the General Attorney of Venezuela, Darek William Saab, who gave an
48:07update on the investigations, regarding the violent event, that took place after the elections
48:13of July 28th. In this context, Saab discussed the evidence, against the so-called comanditos,
48:19and their participation in a series of criminal acts, including first-hand testimonies. He
48:24highlighted, that according to the prosecutor's office, these actions were organized by the
48:29extreme far-right groups, that sought to destabilize the nation.