Retired Venezuelan general who defied Maduro gets more than 21 years in prison in the US
NEW YORK — A retired three-star Venezuelan army general who twice tried to stage coups against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was sentenced Monday to more than 21 years in prison after admitting to supplying weapons to drug-funded rebels.
Cliver Alcalá, 62, of Caracas, Venezuela, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Manhattan after pleading guilty last year to charges that he supported a terrorist group and gave weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC. by the US as a foreign terrorist organization.
Prosecutors had sought a 30-year prison sentence, saying he accepted millions of dollars in cocaine-fueled bribes. His lawyers had demanded six years in prison. Hellerstein ordered him to spend 21 years and eight months in prison.
In a post-conviction release, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Alcalá and his co-conspirators tried to weaponize cocaine by helping the FARC with weapons while shipping tons of drugs to the United States.
He said Alcalá “corrupted the vital institutions of his own country when he helped the FARC flood this country with cocaine – but no longer. Instead, he will now spend more than 20 years in a United States prison.”
Prosecutors said that in 2006, Alcalá began abusing his position in the Venezuelan military, where he commanded thousands of heavily armed military officers, to support the FARC’s distribution of tons of U.S. cocaine.
Alcalá surrendered in Colombia in 2020 to face an indictment in New York accusing him, Maduro and a dozen other military and political leaders of a vast conspiracy to use Venezuela as a launching pad to flood the US with cocaine.
His lawyers argued in court filings that their client lived modestly in Colombia for years before his arrest in a small rented apartment, an older model car and barely $3,000 in his bank account.
In an interview last month with The Associated Press, Alcalá said he has read more than 200 books behind bars and reflected on his choices, missteps and regrets while staying in shape with a daily five-mile treadmill run.