The Chilean prosecutor Héctor Barros reported this Friday night that the body that had been found in the afternoon in an informal neighborhood in the municipality of Maipú, in the western area of Santiago de Chile, corresponds to that of Ronald Leandro Ojeda Moreno, 32 years old, a former Venezuelan military man – an opponent of the Government of Nicolás Maduro – who was kidnapped by four subjects, with their faces covered and wearing false uniforms of the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI), from his apartment in Santiago de Chile early Wednesday, February 21, 10 days ago. “The approximate date of death indicates that it is between seven and 10 days, coinciding with the date on which the kidnapping occurred,†Barros said about a police incident that has been placed at the forefront of the concerns of both the Government, the political class, the prosecutors and the police.
The kidnapping of Ojeda, who had been in Chile since 2018 and had refugee status, has had a strong impact in Chile, exacerbating its unprecedented security crisis. It is a country in which this type of crime began to increase starting in 2022 due to the emergence of a new crime linked, mainly, to transactional gangs and organized crime. However, the case of the former Venezuelan lieutenant has been different from the kidnappings that have occurred, of the extortion type, in this period, since his captors did not ask for money nor did they communicate with the family. Therefore, the motive for the crime remains unknown until now.
Shortly before confirming Ojeda's identification, prosecutor Barros had cataloged the events as “a complex operation linked to organized crime” and, at the same time, reported the arrest of a 17-year-old Venezuelan citizen “who is irregularly in the country. He said that there are new arrest warrants pending execution, which would affect others involved in the events, and that raids have been undertaken in different areas of the Chilean capital in search of evidence and to carry out the arrests. In short, the prosecution this Friday began to tighten its grip on the kidnappers.
Barros, who coordinates the Organized Crime and Homicide Teams, ECOH, in Santiago de Chile, before confirming the discovery of Ojeda's remains, referred to the body found: “In the afternoon a buried body was found, inside a suitcase, under a cement structure. “It is being determined who would be the victim of that event,” said the researcher, without yet referring to the identification.
The way of hiding the body under cement had already been detected by another prosecutor, Mario Carrera, regional head of Arica, in the extreme north of Chile, in June 2023 when he confirmed that two men were buried in the same way in the Cerro Chuño sector. Carrera attributed this double crime to members of the clan Galiciana group considered the operational arm of the Venezuelan organization Tren de Aragua, which has been operating for approximately three years in different regions of Chile.
In January, prosecutor Barros' team found two torture houses, in the municipality of Maipú, where members of the Aragua Train were holding Colombian citizens captive.
The videos from the security cameras
The complaint of the kidnapping in Chile of Venezuelan Ronald Leandro Ojeda Moreno was reported by his family first to Carabineros and then to the PDI. It happened at 3:15 in the morning on Wednesday, February 21, in a building in the municipality of Independencia, in the northern sector of Santiago. According to the video from the security cameras, the three subjects dressed as Chilean police officers, with supposed bulletproof vests, dark helmets and their faces covered, arrived at his apartment on the 14th floor and took him away. A fourth stayed with the janitor. Ojeda was barefoot, wearing only his underwear. In the parking lot you see a gray car with a blue beacon.
In parallel to the first investigations, the former Venezuelan commissioner Iván Simonovis, today an opponent of the Government of Venezuela, through his social network account X published the name of Ojeda, whom he identified as a lieutenant. He was the one who targeted an operation orchestrated by the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) of Venezuela. In his message he attached a video, supposedly of the moment in which the former soldier is taken from his apartment.
It was only at eight in the afternoon on Wednesday the 21st that the Chilean Government confirmed the fact. It was done by the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, who at all times referred to Ojeda as a “Venezuelan citizen,” without mentioning his status as a former military officer or his name. “Indeed, there was a kidnapping of a Venezuelan citizen during the early morning, as I believe is public knowledge, in the commune of Independencia.†He also emphasized that the Prosecutor's Office declared the investigation secret. “What matters here is the protection of the integrity of the eventual victim and his family,†said Monsalve, who that day did not rule out any investigative hypothesis.
10 days ago, Ojeda's kidnapping was established as a State priority and has involved the main Government authorities, headed by the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá; Monsalve, and the Minister of Justice Luis Cordero, who have held at least two meetings with the Prosecutor's Office and police chiefs in La Moneda since February 21, the day the Venezuelan citizen was taken from his apartment.
The Chilean Prosecutor's Office reported that the hearing for the detention control of the 17-year-old Venezuelan citizen will be this Saturday at 11 in the morning at the Justice Center and that there are two other arrest warrants in force.
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