Latin America editor, BBC News Online

Former Venezuela's military intelligence leader, Hugo Carvajal – also known as El Polo, or Chicken – has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and terrorism accusations in the United States.
US officials have accused the 65-year-old youth of being part of a drug smuggling organization composed of high-ranking Venezuelan military members.
The guilty legal basis is the most recent turn in the death of Carvajal out of fear of Spymaster to convicted by his shameful arrest in a hiding place in Madrid, where he was spotted, although he inflicted false mustaches and a wig.
It is believed that Carvajal, who was a close ally of the late President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez, possesses key information about Chavez's heir, Nicholas Maduro.
Carvajal was part of the Cartel de Los Solis (Sun Cartel) – named after the “sun” that differ in the lapel of high -ranking officers in the Venezuelan military – according to A statement published by the US Prosecutor's Office of the South District of New YorkWhere Carvajal had to pass in the coming days.
“He and other Cartel de Los Solis employees have used cocaine as a weapon – flooding New York and other American poison cities,” the statement said.
He added that he partnered with left -wing rebels of the revolutionary armed forces in neighboring Colombia, which he supplied with weapons and whose cocaine shipments to the United States through Venezuela he defended.
Carvajal received millions of dollars in return, according to US lawyer Jay Clayton.
The fact that Carvajal has changed his request to “guilty” two years after denying all charges against him has led to speculation that he may have reached a deal for a lower sentence in exchange for the provision of criminal information about the Maduro government.
The United States accused Maduro of drug-terrorism five years ago and imposed sanctions on it and its inner circle.
As a former head of spy, it is believed that Carvajal has access to rich material for the current and past Venezuelan governments.
Relations between Carvajal and Maduro were destroyed in 2017, when the anti -government protests that Carvajal spoke in favor of the swept country.
They fell apart in 2019 when Carvajal called on the military to support the experience of opposition leader Juan Guaido to overthrow Maduro.
When the military remained loyal to Maduro, Carvajal fled to Spain.
After a few years in which he was on the move, he was finally traced to an apartment in Madrid and extradited to the United States.