A formidable opponent of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who twice tried to mount coups against the socialist leader spoke to The Associated Press as a Manhattan federal judge is deciding whether to punish him with a long prison sentence. It's the first time retired army Gen. Cliver Alcalá has spoken to the media since surrendering in 2020.
FILE - In this courtroom sketch, retired three-star Venezuelan army general Cliver Antonio Alcala Cordones, right, appears in federal court, Jan, 18, 2024, in New York. The formidable opponent of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who twice tried to mount coups against the socialist leader spoke to The Associated Press as a Manhattan federal judge decides whether to punish him with a long prison sentence. It’s the first time Alcalá has spoken since surrendering in 2020. CARMEL, N.Y.
As part of a plea deal struck last year, prosecutors dropped all drug charges against Alcalá. Instead, they left only two counts of providing weapons to theProsecutors are now urging U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to consider even the previously dismissed charges and unproven allegations of drug smuggling when handing down a sentence — something that surprised Alcalá when he pleaded guilty to the lesser offenses.
Isacson noted that the minimum 30 years prosecutors are seeking in Alcalá’s case is longer than the average 12 years served by a cadre of Colombian paramilitary warlords extradited to the U.S. in 2008 on drug-trafficking charges.to face a federal indictment charging him, Maduro and a dozen other military and political leaders with a sprawling conspiracy to convert Venezuela into a launchpad for flooding the U.S. with cocaine. All are alleged to be members of what U.S.
“He was not living the life of an exiled corrupt Latin American leader rich with the spoils of monies corruptly earned,” his attorneys wrote in a pre-sentencing memo seeking just six years behind bars.
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