The Chilean Prosecutor's Office concluded, after two years of investigation, that Diosdado Cabello, Minister of the Interior, Justice, and Peace of the Chavista regime and one of the most powerful and feared men in Venezuela, allegedly hired and paid the Tren de Aragua to assassinate the former Venezuelan lieutenant Ronald Ojeda, an opposition figure exiled in Santiago, Chile.
This was revealed in a report from Noticias Caracol that includes the formal accusation from the Chilean justice system, filed days before the start of the trials against 34 members of that criminal organization.
The metropolitan regional prosecutor of southern Chile, Héctor Barros, was emphatic: «What we have established is that the one in charge of the negotiation is Diosdado Cabello and who would be behind the payment».
The lawyer for the Ojeda family, Juan Carlos Manríquez, detailed before the courts that "the Prosecutor's Office of Chile has maintained the thesis that this group was hired, was negotiated, and was in turn used and served as a true criminal author with money coming from Venezuela paid by, according to three people in this investigation, Diosdado Cabello, outside of Venezuela and outside of Chile."
The case originates on December 13, 2023, when Ojeda met in Cúcuta, Colombia, with former military member Ángelo Heredia, student leader Pablo Parada, and other opponents to plan how to overthrow Maduro.
The Venezuelan General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) collaborated with the ELN to kidnap them on Colombian territory. Heredia was captured and handed over to Venezuelan military forces on the other side of the border, where he remains imprisoned. Parada was spared because he did not attend the meeting. Ojeda managed to escape and fled overland through Ecuador and Peru until he settled in Santiago, Chile.
Two months later, on February 21, 2024, members of the Tren de Aragua disguised as officers from the Chilean PDI took him from his apartment in the Independencia district. His body was found days later, asphyxiated and buried under concrete in the Maipú district, in what Manríquez described as "an extremely sophisticated logistical plan, never before seen in Chile up to that date."
The Chilean investigation traced the operation through Colombia, Costa Rica, the United States, and Chile, and identified dozens of participants.
Two of the direct defendants —Luis Alfredo Carrillo, alias "Gocho," and Dayonis Orosco, alias "El Botija"— were captured by Interpol Colombia, although the government of Gustavo Petro delayed their extradition despite the processes being completed. Only two weeks before the start of the trial was their transfer to Chile carried out. In contrast, the Colombian Prosecutor's Office never investigated the events that occurred in its territory.
Diosdado Cabello is not only facing this accusation. The United States is offering a reward of 25 million dollars for information leading to his arrest, accusing him of narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and the use of weapons in support of drug-related crimes.
Washington identifies him as one of the alleged leaders of the Cartel of the Suns, a criminal network linked to sectors of the Venezuelan Armed Forces. Major human rights organizations around the world also accuse him of numerous crimes within Venezuela.
After the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026, Cabello remained as Minister of the Interior in the government of the interim president Delcy Rodríguez, establishing himself as one of the key pillars in the control of the regime's security forces.
Jairo Libreros, a security expert from the Universidad Externado de Colombia, warned that the case "puts the interim government in serious trouble" and that "ultimately, the one who will make the decision regarding any potential extradition is not Miraflores, nor Delcy Rodríguez, but directly Donald Trump."
«I believe that Mr. Diosdado Cabello knows very well that his days are numbered and that this incident could be used by the U.S. government to enable his capture and extradition to Chile or directly to the United States,» concluded Libreros.
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