Caracas Chronicles

On February 21st, 2024, exactly a year ago, First Lieutenant Ronald Ojeda Moreno was kidnapped in Chile. Ten days later, on March 1st, his corpse was found with clear signs of torture and stuck inside a suitcase buried under a cement structure.

Over the past twelve months, Chilean authorities have thoroughly investigated the case. On January 22nd, they arrested at least a dozen alleged members of the criminal mega-gang Tren de Aragua, some of whom may be linked to the murder of the former Venezuelan military officer.

The Chilean prosecutor, Héctor Barros, pointed out that the investigations determined the existence of a criminal gang called Los Piratas de Aragua (The Aragua Pirates), which operates in Chile and is made up of 23 individuals who operated with a distinct dynamic and internal hierarchy.

In the U.S state of Texas, Chilean authorities also reported the arrest of Rafael Enrique Gómez Salasin, also known as “El Turco,” who the investigation points to as the intellectual author of Ojeda’s assassination.

The next day, on January 23rd, the Chilean Prosecutor’s Office revealed that a witness, among the ones that cooperated in the investigation into Ojeda’s murder, confirmed that the crime was ordered by Diosdado Cabello Rondón, the Venezuelan Interior Minister.

Most recently, investigations by the Chilean Public Ministry and Investigative Police (PDI) claim to have located a fingerprint in the elevator of the building where Ojeda Moreno was kidnapped. This fingerprint allegedly places Venezuelan Colonel Alexander Granko Arteaga, head of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), at the scene. 

While the investigations continue and members of Nicolás Maduro’s government are accused for their alleged responsibility, the question arises: who was Lieutenant Ronald Ojeda Moreno?

His last publication on X was on January 24, 2024, where he quoted Simón Bolívar: “As I love freedom, I have noble and liberal feelings; and if I tend to be severe, it is only with those who seek to destroy us.”

Ojeda was born on September 2, 1991 in Maracay, in the state of Aragua, an entity located in the central and industrial zone of Venezuela. He came from a low-income family made up of seven brothers.

In 2012 he graduated as an Army infantry lieutenant and, after that, he traveled to an Army special forces unit in San Cristóbal, in the state of Táchira, on the border with Colombia, to take a command course. There he met his future wife, whom he married in December 2016.

In November 2018, Ojeda Moreno and part of his family arrived in Chile after a brief stay in Peru. There he lived with his wife Josmarghy Castillo and their only son. His sister, Mayra Ojeda Moreno, had also migrated to Chile with her children. In fact, she was one of the first people to arrive at their apartment when Castillo alerted her about Ronald’s kidnapping.

One of Ojeda’s brothers, Javier Ojeda, is living in Spain. And coincidentally, another of the late first lieutenant’s brothers is an active military man in Venezuela. Ronald and the latter did not have a very good relationship as they did not share the same “ideals,” according to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera.

That brother is Germán Alexander Ojeda Moreno, major general of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces who worked as coordinator of the Local Supply and Distribution Committees (Clap) in the state of Trujillo, and as regional director and coordinator food mission Mercal (in 2013), according to his Poderopedia profile.

Arrested, accused and tortured in Venezuela

Ronald Ojeda Moreno was arrested in Venezuela in April 2017 along with three other soldiers for their alleged involvement in acts with “conspiratorial purposes and planning of terrorist actions.” All were charged with the crimes of rebellion, instigation of rebellion, mutiny and treason. Ojeda Moreno was linked to Operation “Espada de Dios”, a military rebellion that allegedly intended to attack barracks in the country. 

The detainees acknowledged being part of the self-proclaimed “Movement for Freedom and Democracy,” and signed a document in which they did not recognize Nicolás Maduro as commander-in-chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB).

The arrest took place while Ojeda was on duty at his command post in Apure state, a border area between Venezuela and Colombia, important for groups led by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), who are accused of having links with organized crime groups in drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion and smuggling.

On November 30, 2017, Ojeda was transferred along with eight former soldiers from the Ramo Verde military prison to the Fuerte Tiuna military courts. As they were being transported, the detained officials rebelled against the guards, taking their weapons and the vehicle carrying them.

In March 2024, a few days after Ojeda was murdered, his brother Javier Ojeda revealed that the former soldier left some writings in which he described the torture suffered when DGCIM detained him.

The document with his testimony consists of 185 pages to which the Chilean newspaper La Tercera had access. Javier Ojeda explained that his brother began to write down his experiences after leaving Venezuela. Throughout the document, Ojeda recorded how they threw his food on the floor and, when he finished eating, officers took him out of the cell to take him interrogation sessions and torture him. These tortures would include, according to the text, “electric shocks, mechanical asphyxiation and blows with metal bars.”

The escape of Ojeda

On November 30, 2017, Ojeda was transferred along with eight former soldiers from the Ramo Verde military prison to the Fuerte Tiuna military courts. As they were being transported, the detained officials rebelled against the guards, taking their weapons and the vehicle carrying them.

Present at the event were First Lieutenants Luis Berbesi Torres, José González Bolaños, Moreno Briceño Camacho, Josué Hidalgo Azuaje, Francisco Rodríguez Ojeda, Eliezer Vásquez and José Ángel Rodríguez Araña. All of them had been expelled from the FANB in ​​February 2018.

Lieutenants Briceño, Ojeda, Hidalgo and Rodríguez in Lima, Peru, after fleeing Venezuela | La Tercera

Five of the detainees managed to escape, but Rafael Arreaza, Ojeda’s comrade in arms, died after being shot in the abdomen. Another soldier was shot in the leg. Lieutenant Luis Alejandro Mogollón Velázquez was also injured when he was thrown from the vehicle, according to a resolution of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in which he was granted precautionary measures in 2022.

The five fugitives traveled south, arriving in Lima, Peru. By August 2018, Ojeda decided to move to Chile and settled in the commune of Quillota, in the Valparaíso Region, in the house of relatives who were already there. In November 2023, Chile granted him political asylum.

Among those who managed to flee was his classmate at the military academy, José Rodríguez, who assured that Ojeda preferred to continue his travel to Chile “because he considered it to be a safer country than Peru,” as well as a more stable economy.

Staying true to their ideals

Chilean media Mega Investiga had access to an audio that they claim reproduced the voice of Ojeda Moreno, where the former military confirmed that he was in Cúcuta, Colombia, weeks before being kidnapped and murdered. The first lieutenant is heard stating that he participated in an operation on the Venezuelan border, whose objective would be the overthrow of the Nicolás Maduro government.

This would have been a secret trip, where the late soldier crossed the Chilean border through unauthorized roads to enter and leave the country between December 2023 and January 2024.

During the journey, apparently, Ojeda Moreno was with Army Captain Ányelo Heredia Gervacio. Presumably, when both were trying to cross a trail from Colombia to Venezuelan territory, Heredia was arrested and presented in Venezuela for a conspiracy they called “White Bracelet”, which intended to attack Nicolás Maduro and the governor of Táchira, Freddy Bernal.

After the trip, Ronald Ojeda was doing paperwork to take refuge in Spain, according to his sister Mayra Ojeda. However, the slow process delayed his intentions to look for a new hiding place and, finally, he was murdered shortly after in Chile.

One year after his kidnapping, Ronald Ojeda’s case remains in a judicial stage, so spokespeople for President Gabriel Boric are waiting for its resolution to establish an official position

On January 24, 2024, the Ministry of Defense, headed by Vladimir Padrino López, published a decree announcing the “demotion and expulsion” of 33 military officials, including Ojeda Moreno.

But Ojeda had already appeared since 2018 on a list of demoted military personnel, along with 12 other officers, through decree 2,399 published in Official Gazette No. 41,350 of February 28 of that year, which established that he was demoted “for being unworthy of belonging to the Bolivarian National Armed Forces.” 

Ojeda Moreno remained an active user on X (formerly Twitter). He constantly shared complaints of arbitrary arrests, health conditions of political prisoners, demonstrations taking place in the country and clear messages against the government of Nicolás Maduro and his officials. In fact, Ojeda gained some notoriety on social media in 2022 when he staged a protest with a bag on his head in front of the presidential La Moneda Palace, in Santiago de Chile. In doing so, he appeared to warn about the fragile situation of political prisoner Igber Marín Chaparro, who at that time was on a hunger strike.

His last publication on X was on January 24 2024, where he quoted Simón Bolívar: “As I love freedom, I have noble and liberal feelings; and if I tend to be severe, it is only with those who seek to destroy us.”

Chilean authorities and investigators do not rule out that Ojeda’s social media activity, while being in touch with soldiers who expressed their discontent with Nicolas Maduro’s command, turned Ojeda Moreno into a target. At the same time, his figure could have served as an example of the Venezuelan state’s attempt to control any military movement being organized in Venezuela.

Ojeda was kidnapped on February 21, 2024 at his home in Santiago. His remains were found ten days later in a peripheral town of the capital, buried under a cement block. This month in Santiago de Chile, a 17-year-old Venezuelan became the first person convicted for the murder. The Chilean Justice sentenced the latter to five years in prison. One year after his kidnapping, Ronald Ojeda’s case remains in a judicial stage, so spokespeople for President Gabriel Boric are waiting for its resolution to establish an official position. “If the commission of a political crime is confirmed in Chilean national territory, ordered by a high authority of a foreign government, Chile will exercise all the actions available to it in the national and international legal system,” said Chile’s Minister of Justice, Jaime Gafardo, in statements from February 17.