What is the US accusing Hugo Chávez’s nurse and bodyguard of who will be on trial starting this Monday?

Venezuelans Claudia Patricia Díaz Guillén and her husband, Adrián José Velásquez Figueroa, stand trial in USA from this Monday, November 21. Both were close collaborators of the late former president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez.

The trial is taking place in the courts of Fort Lauderdale, Floridaand it will last two weeks. During the first week the jury will be selected.

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Claudia Patricia Diaz Guillen He directed the National Treasury of Venezuela between 2011 and 2013, when Chávez was president. While Adrian Jose Velasquez Figueroa He was the chief of security for the president.

The United States accuses them to participate in a vast plot of corruption through exchange houseswhich allowed the embezzlement of 2,400 million dollars.

Adrián Velásquez Figueroa, the former bodyguard of the late President Hugo Chávez. (Photo: Twitter/@ismaelmoli).

According to the US court record, Diaz She served as Hugo Chávez’s personal nurse from 1999 to 2013.

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The case also involves Alejandro Andrade Cedenowhich was treasurer of the government of Venezuela between 2007 and 2010, and the businessman Raul Gorrinowner and president of the Venezuelan channel Globovisión.

The network allegedly diverted funds through exchange houses that, under the authority of the Venezuelan Treasury, exchanged dollars for bolivars at a higher rate than the official one.

According to the indictment, Gorrín paid “millions of dollars in bribes” to Andrade, Diaz Guillen and Velasquez to guarantee access to that exchange system.

Raúl Gorrín, duel of Globovisión of Venezuela (Facebook)

The spouses were extradited from Spain in May and October of this year. They had been detained since December 2020 after the United States claimed them for crimes related to money laundering.

andradewho was released from prison in February, was sentenced in 2018 in USA to 10 years in prison for corruption and money laundering for more than 1,000 million dollars.

sparrowwho is in Venezuelais considered a fugitive by the United States justice system.

Mossack Fonseca

Díaz Guillén’s activities came to light in the Panama Papers in 2016, where his name appeared as one of the people who “used the Panamanian signature mossack fonseca for the creation of companies, for allegedly criminal purposes”, according to the Spanish justice system.

When the scandal broke in 2016, the police in Venezuela registered several departments belonging to the husbands Guillen–Velasquez , where they found from jet skis to envelopes with diamonds, according to Venezuelan investigative media. After that, the justice Venezuela also asked Spain their extradition, but they were eventually sent to USA.

“Neither Mrs. Guillén nor her husband committed the crimes that the Government of the United States alleges.”, the couple’s lawyer, Marissel Descalzo, told the EFE agency.

The lawyer did not want to advance the arguments on which the defense will be based, stating that she will present them next Monday the 28th in court once the jury is chosen.

According to EFE, the lawyer filed a motion on Friday asking the court to force the United States Attorney’s Office to disclose information that would eventually serve the defense.

The defense asserts that neither Díaz, who has pleaded not guilty, nor Velásquez Figueroa, “transmitted, transported, or transferred any monetary instrument to the United States in furtherance of any unlawful activity.”

After the death of Hugo Chávez, the spouses left Venezuela and after being in the Dominican Republic they settled in Spain, recalls EFE.

In 2028 Venezuela requested his extradition from Spain and this was approved on October 25, 2018 by the National Court for the crimes of money laundering, criminal association and enrichment.

But Spain reversed its decision, considering that in Venezuela His integrity was in danger.

Source: Elcomercio