Chilean prosecutor Héctor Barros reported on Friday evening that the body found in the afternoon in a neighborhood of the municipality of Maipú, in the western part of Santiago de Chile, corresponded to the body of Ronald Leandro Ojeda Moreno, 32 years old. , a former Venezuelan military man – an opponent of the government of Nicolás Maduro – who was kidnapped from his home in Santiago de Chile by four people in the early hours of Wednesday, February 21, 10 days ago. “The approximate date of death suggests that it is between seven and 10 days and coincides with the date of the abduction,” Barros said of a police incident that has been brought to the forefront of concern for both the government and the political class, the prosecutors and the police.
Shortly before Ojeda's identification was confirmed, the prosecutor had classified the incidents as “a complex operation linked to organized crime” while also reporting the arrest of a 17-year-old Venezuelan citizen “who is staying irregularly in the country.” . He said that new arrest warrants were available for execution that would affect others involved in the events, and that raids had been carried out in various areas of the Chilean capital to search for evidence and make the arrests. In short, this Friday the prosecution began to tighten its grip on the kidnappers.
Barros, who coordinates the Organized Crime and Homicide (ECOH) teams in Santiago de Chile, before confirming the discovery of Ojeda's remains, referred to the body found: “In the afternoon, a body was found buried in a suitcase under a concrete structure. “It is being determined who the victim of this event would be,” said the investigator, without yet going into identification.
The Chilean prosecutor's office reported that the detention hearing against the 17-year-old Venezuelan will take place this Saturday and that two other arrest warrants are in force.
The complaint about the kidnapping of Venezuelan Ronald Leandro Ojeda Moreno in Chile was reported by his family first to the Carabineros and then to the PDI. It happened on Wednesday, February 21, at 3:15 a.m. in a building in the municipality of Independencia, in the northern part of Santiago. According to the surveillance camera video, three people wearing fake PDI uniforms, supposedly bulletproof vests, dark helmets and covered faces arrived at his 14th floor apartment and took him away. A fourth stayed with the caretaker. Ojeda was barefoot and wore only underwear. In the parking lot you see a gray car with blue lights.
In parallel with the initial investigation, former Venezuelan commissioner Iván Simonovis, now an opponent of the Venezuelan government, published through his social network account X the name Ojeda, whom he identified as a lieutenant. He was the one who targeted an operation orchestrated by Venezuela's General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM). He attached a video to his message that allegedly shows the moment the former soldier is taken from his apartment.
It was not until eight o'clock in the afternoon of Wednesday the 21st that the Chilean government confirmed the fact. This was done by the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, who always referred to Ojeda as a “Venezuelan citizen” without mentioning his status as a former military officer. “In fact, as is well known, there was a kidnapping of a Venezuelan citizen in the municipality of Independencia in the early hours of the morning.” He also stressed that the prosecutor's office has declared the investigation secret. “What matters here is protecting the integrity of the subsequent victim and his family,” said Monsalve, who did not rule out any investigative hypothesis that day.
10 days ago, the kidnapping of Ojeda was declared a state priority. The motive for the crime is still unclear because, unlike the extortion-type kidnappings carried out in Chile since 2022, in the case of Ojeda, the kidnappers did not ask for money or communicate in order to intimidate the family in return. to release it.
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