Not sure if this has been posted. It is a long read for many here. But it is important.

LINK

Letter from Hugo Carvajal Barrios to the President
@realDonaldTrump

Dear Mr. President Trump and people of the United States:
My name is Hugo Carvajal Barrios. For many years, I was a high-ranking official in the Venezuelan regime. I was a three-star general, trusted by Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, and I served as Director of Military Intelligence and as a member of the National Assembly. Today, I am in a U.S. prison because I voluntarily pleaded guilty to the charges against me: a narco-terrorist conspiracy. I am writing to atone for my sins by telling the whole truth, so that the United States can protect itself from the dangers I witnessed for so many years.
I publicly broke with the Maduro regime in 2017 and fled my country, knowing I faced criminal charges in the United States. In doing so, I became its enemy. Knowing the risks, I acted with the utmost conviction to dismantle Maduro’s criminal regime and bring freedom to my country. Today, I see the need to speak to the American people about the reality of the Venezuelan regime and why President Trump’s policies are not only correct, but absolutely necessary for America’s national security.
1. Narcoterrorism
I personally witnessed how Hugo Chávez's government became a criminal organization that is now led by Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and other high-ranking regime officials.
The purpose of this organization, now known as the Cartel of the Suns, is to use drugs as a weapon against the United States. The drugs that arrived in their cities via new routes were not the product of corruption or the work of independent drug traffickers; they were deliberate policies coordinated by the Venezuelan regime against the United States.
This plan was suggested by the Cuban regime to Chávez in the mid-2000s and has been successfully implemented with the help of the FARC, the ELN, Cuban agents, and Hezbollah. The regime has provided these terrorist organizations with weapons, passports, and impunity, allowing them to operate freely from Venezuela against the United States.
2. Aragua Train
I was present when decisions were made to organize and weaponize criminal gangs throughout Venezuela to protect the regime, including the group known as the Tren de Aragua. Chávez ordered the recruitment of criminal leaders inside and outside prisons to defend the revolution in exchange for impunity. After Chávez's death, Maduro expanded this strategy, exporting crime and chaos abroad to target Venezuelan political exiles and artificially reduce crime statistics in Venezuela. Gang leaders were ordered to expel thousands of members from the country. This was coordinated through the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Prisons, the National Guard, and the National Police. The Tren de Aragua became the most effective and fastest-growing of these gangs.
When the Biden-Harris open borders policy became public, they seized the opportunity to send these agents to the United States. Now they have obedient and armed personnel on American soil. To fund their operations, they received explicit instructions to continue kidnapping, extorting, and murdering. Every crime they commit on American soil is an act ordered by the regime.
3. Counterintelligence and espionage against the United States
I was present when Russian intelligence arrived in Caracas to propose to Hugo Chávez the intervention of the submarine internet cables that connect most of South America and the Caribbean islands with the United States, in order to penetrate the communications of the United States government.
In 2015, I warned Maduro that allowing Russian intelligence to build and operate a secret listening post on La Orchila island would one day provoke US bombs. He ignored me.
For twenty years, the Venezuelan regime sent spies into its country; many are still there, some disguised as members of the Venezuelan opposition. Cuban intelligence showed me their networks within their naval bases on the East Coast. They boasted of having sent thousands of spies over decades, some of whom are now career politicians.
US diplomats and CIA agents received payments to help Chávez and Maduro stay in power. These Americans acted as spies for Cuba and Venezuela, and some remain active to this day.
4. Smartmatic and your choices
Smartmatic was born as an electoral tool for the Venezuelan regime, but it soon became a tool to help the regime stay in power. I know this because I put the head of IT at the National Electoral Council (CNE) in his position, and he reported directly to me. The Smartmatic system can be tampered with; this is a fact. This technology was later exported abroad, including to the United States. Regime agents maintain relationships with electoral officials and voting machine companies within the country. I'm not claiming that all elections are stolen, but I am stating with certainty that elections can be manipulated with the software, and it has been used for that purpose.
People of the United States, make no mistake about the threat posed by allowing a narco-terrorist organization to roam freely throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, doing everything possible to harm the American people, finance anti-Americanism across the continent, and facilitate the operations of other terrorist organizations and enemies of the United States within Venezuela and now within your borders.
The regime I served is not only hostile; it is at war with you, using drugs, gangs, espionage, and even your own democratic processes as weapons. President Trump’s policies against the criminal Maduro regime are not only justified, but necessary and proportionate to the threat. He may even be underestimating what the regime is willing to do to cling to power. They have contingency plans for every extreme scenario to ensure they never relinquish control.
I fully support President Trump's policy toward Venezuela, as it is in self-defense and based on truth. I am willing to provide further details on these matters to the United States government.
Hugo Carvajal Barrios
United States of America
December 2, 2025