Versión Español
Spanish – Captain Antonio Sequea, who claimed the leadership of Operation Gideon, was allegedly the military insider who decided to execute the plan while providing information to the regime of Nicolás Maduro, specifically Diosdado Cabello, the second most powerful man in Chavismo.
Sequea was captured by Nicolás Maduro’s regime, and recently, his statements were broadcast on the Chavista state channel accusing Iván Simonovis of being the head of Operation Gideon. He also accused the governments of the United States and Colombia of plotting against Maduro. However, Sequea’s record suggests that his statements are not true. On the contrary, he could be one of the infiltrators who devised the operation.
#ENVIDEO | Testimonio del terrorista Antonio Sequea donde afirma que Iván Simonovis lo contactó para que lo mantuvieran al tanto de las novedades y operaciones en curso referente a Venezuela https://t.co/2zyN95iziQ pic.twitter.com/C4knY29wuV
— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) May 12, 2020
A military source told the PanAm Post that Sequea always under the command of high-ranking Chavista military officials; first, General Hugo Carvajal, then- Gustavo González López, and later, Cristopher Figuera, who is now in exile after participating in an attempted rebellion against Nicolás Maduro on April 30, 2019.
Sequea defected from Venezuela to Colombia after participating in the uprising. He was also the one who, following Figuera’s orders, was instrumental in the release of opposition leader Leopoldo López. However, when he defected, he remained in the training camps and received orders from Clíver Alcalá Cordones, who was detained in the United States on drug trafficking charges.
Before turning himself in to the U.S. government, Alcalá claimed ownership of some seized weapons, and also said that they belonged to the “Venezuelan people.” He also lashed out at President Juan Guaidó, accusing him of betraying a signed contract to supposedly carry out Operation Gideon. Alcalá Cordones has also been singled out as a double agent, offering information to both Chavismo and the opposition.
After Alcalá surrendered, Sequea was left in charge of the operation on Colombian soil, and he was supposedly the one who gave the order to act and carry out the plan although the Maduro regime was already aware of what was happening.
“After the operation failed, because General Alcalá was taken to the United States by the DEA, Sequea said he would carry out Operation Gideon, and until that moment, we believed that his relationship with Diosdado Cabello did not influence the information leak,” one of the military men, who did not embark on the operation because of health problems, told Infobae.
Moreover, Juvenal Sequea, the captain’s brother, had reported on the operation from abroad, exposing the plans of his family member involved in the operation.
Sequea y Diosdado Cabello
In an interview with NTN24, Venezuelan journalist Sebastiana Barráez, a specialist in military sources, raised the possibility that Antonio Sequea may have communicated with Diosdado Cabello during the planning of Operation Gideon.
According to Barráez, Cabello would have used intelligence resources to obtain information that would allow him to infiltrate and eventually thwart the operation.
The captain allegedly had so much communication with Cabello that he was responsible for torturing political prisoners in Venezuela, including General Angel Vivas. The officer worked in the General Directorate of Military Counter-Intelligence when General Vivas was detained. He was also allegedly the torturer of Captain Caguaripano, who rebelled against the Maduro regime.
#ATENCION Sabía ud que Antonio Sequea, el capitán capturado en las costas de Chuao, fue el torturador del General Vivas? Si! Sequea fue el que fracturó irreversiblemente la columna del General Vivas..Me informan que también fue el torturador del Capitán Juan Caguaripano pic.twitter.com/ZbswVQQWwD
— Hecmiry Lugo (@hecmirylugo) May 7, 2020
“Diosdado Cabello and Captain Antonio Sequea, a DGCI officer trained in Argentina, were the ones who led the brutal beating that nearly killed General Vivas and irreversibly fractured his spine,” said Estrella Vitora, the General’s wife.
Hoy se cumple 3 años desde que el colombiano y presunto narcotraficante @NicolasMaduro ejecutó a través de sus esbirros los Capitanes @dcabellor y Antonio Sequea el violento secuestro al @Gral_Vivas_P. El cual tuvo como resultado que hoy debamos agacharnos para poder abrazarlo. pic.twitter.com/89Qz78Ku76
— Estrella Vitora (@Estrella_Vitora) April 7, 2020
Antonio Sequea was a man close to Cabello and to Major General Hugo Carvajal, who is currently a fugitive from the U.S. and Spanish justice systems on charges of drug trafficking. He was also an assistant to Gustavo González López at the Sebin and to Clíver Alcalá Cordones, all of whom are accused of human rights violations, and some of them are linked to international drug trafficking. Given all this, and his relationship with Chavismo, Sequea could be one of the main infiltrators in Operation Gideon, which has so far left eight dead and more than 40 detained. However, there is one trait that characterizes him: the captain was always at the service of another general.
