00:00And in the context of the Venezuelan election,
00:02let's remember who Edmundo González is,
00:04the former candidate of the Venezuelan far right
00:06has blood on his hands.
00:08So say Salvadoran citizens who witnessed the dark role
00:11he played when he served as the right handman of opposition
00:15leader Leopoldo Castillo, who in 1980s
00:18was Venezuela's ambassador to San Salvador.
00:21Correspondent Roberto Huopresa has the testimonies
00:23from people who witnessed that question
00:25chapter of Venezuelan opposition.
00:26In the late 70s and early 80s, in the midst of the civil war,
00:35Leopoldo Castillo was appointed ambassador of Venezuela,
00:39a character who from the diplomatic headquarters
00:41had financed death squads that murdered thousands
00:43of Salvadorans, among them priests and four
00:46nuns of the Maranal order.
00:48Former guerrilla commander Nidia Diaz
00:51recalls that the conspiracy planned
00:53to torture, capture, disappear, and kill opponents
00:56was planned from the Venezuelan embassy
00:58and was directed by Leopoldo Castillo.
01:03Who was later named priest slayer.
01:07That is how he is known for being an agent of death
01:10and persecuting Christians in the country.
01:13I do not doubt that he may have known or linked in some way
01:17to the murder of San Romero, because later we
01:23learned that he was also involved
01:25in the murder of Marignol nuns that
01:28happened in November of 1981-82.
01:34And they also murdered many priests.
01:41Nidia Diaz recalls that while she was a prisoner of war,
01:44two people from the Venezuelan embassy came to interrogate her.
01:47One of them was Castillo, whose closest collaborator
01:50was the far-right representative Edmundo Gonzalez.
01:55Veteran diplomat Ruben Zamora says
01:57that at that time the United States maintained
02:00interference operations in Latin American countries
02:02and that the Venezuelans were accomplices
02:04in several crimes, which shows that Venezuela tolerated
02:08and harbored confessed terrorists.
02:13Just the fact that important people
02:15of the Venezuelan Christian democracy
02:18sent to help the armed forces of El Salvador,
02:21an armed force that was absolutely violating
02:25human rights, is already a crime.
02:30Declassified CIA documents revealed
02:32that people from the Venezuelan embassy
02:34were mentioned as co-responsible for the intelligence services,
02:37authors of covert operations of the death squads, which
02:40carried out a series of massacres
02:42during Operation Centauro, financed by the United States.
02:47Edmundo Gonzalez, representative
02:49of the Venezuelan far-right, was a witness and accomplice
02:52of these barbaric acts, says former congressional president
02:55Sigfrido Reyes.
02:59Edmundo Gonzalez has this dark past
03:03and is directly responsible and co-author of war crimes
03:09and crimes against humanity committed
03:12against innocent and defenseless people who
03:16had risen up against a despotic regime.
03:21Edmundo Gonzalez has blood on his hands
03:25and is remembered in El Salvador as a dismal character.
03:33For this historian, the Venezuelan ultra-right wing
03:36was used by the United States for its political ends,
03:40an interference that has been maintained for years.
03:44The United States had its interests
03:47in containing the advance of the revolutions
03:50in the Central American countries,
03:52and Carlos Andres Perez wanted international prestige.
03:56That is how hunger and need came together
03:59in the Salvadoran conflict, and that
04:01is how Venezuela entered.
04:03Since then, and even now in El Salvador,
04:06there is a group of Venezuelans working
04:08for the government of President Bukele,
04:10linked to the right wing against Chavismo.
04:15So if you look at them, they are a kind
04:18of shadow cabinet in El Salvador,
04:21people close to the Venezuelan right wing.
04:27In spite of the evidence and documents that
04:30have been declassified, both Castillo and Gonzalez
04:33have denied such actions by an interfering government that
04:35was acting in complicity with the destabilization
04:38plans of the United States.
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