The ELN finances an indigenous strike that demands the departure of a mayor and claims the place of a mayor imprisoned for drug trafficking

When the mayor of the Semprúm municipality, Keyrineth Selenia Fernández Epieyu (35, from the PSUV), was arrested in a vehicle with seven packs of cocaine on January 27, 2022, a strong dispute arose between the guerrilla that uses the indigenous people, demanding control of the mayor's office. The ELN financed and defended its questioned electoral triumph on November 26, 2021, demanding the return of the narco-mayor or the appointment of a relative or close relative. The campaign of the current mayor, Wuyhsmans Ramon González Salas, was financed by the FARC and the people's trade.

The penetration of the ELN has been dizzying in recent years. “Nobody confronts them because they have weapons, a lot of money, political relations and they also finance various sectors, including salaries in some educational institutes, including the most important Lyceum in Casigua, supported by Elina Bracho, former head of the Municipal Education Zone and current councilor,” a witness in the region told Infobae.

Exactly a week ago, on Sunday, April 10, the National Liberation Army (ELN), using a group of indigenous people from the Wayuu and Barí peoples, with the participation of the political team of the arrested mayor, blocked Troncal 6, Machiques-Colón highway, at the height of the El Cruce sector, Barí parish, Jesús María municipality Semprúm, Zulia state, about 45 minutes from Casigua El Cubo and the Machiques de Perija municipality. Over the days it has even extended to the road between Casigua and La Fría, Pan-American municipality of Táchira.

The guerrillas started by closing the pikes of the border, using some indigenous leaders from the sectors Wuaicaipuro, July 5, San Benito, Anamia Lucia, Wuayu Boconó to lead the protest with their women and children.

It is an area where the guerrillas have purchased a large amount of land, managed to impose a financial system to guarantee the loyalty of small producers, many of whom have finally had to hand over their property to lenders.

Pay the ELN

Witnesses told Infobae that everything is very well organized by the ELN, which calls itself the 'peasant community'. “They lead the protest and the most visible chiefs wear black shirts, black rubber boots and short-caliber weapons; a few walk in shorts, confused with the curious people who arrive. They openly say that Keyrineth should return or replace her by a family member or friend of theirs.” The Jesús María Semprum municipality is the gateway to the south of Lake Maracaibo and the Perijá axis.

The authorities of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), to which the mayor and people around her belonged, were removed, but officials were left who respond to the interests of the guerrilla and drug trafficking, who are behind the strike and who demand that Mayor González Salas be removed. A greater problem may arise because the Sabanas Altas Cartel would have been involved, which would be related to the mayor and detained deputies.

Several people from Semprúm agree that “the guerrilla funding is very strong for those who have made unemployment, including children's diapers, food, lodging and transportation for all those who have concentrated in the tranca, many of them transferred from Machiques. Twelve buses and four vans mobilize people who protest, who are given lodging at night.”

The president of the Municipal Chamber of Semprúm is Councilman Jhoan Steve del Valle Saúl, who is very close to the ELN, lives in El Cruce and is one of the organizers of the strike.

Producers in the area said, in conversation with Infobae, that they have received threats from the guerrillas and drug traffickers because they have refused to go out to protest. “The access roads have been closed to us because of the place where agricultural and livestock production comes out.”

The participation of the guerrillas, who use new luxury vans, which are not possessed by the indigenous people participating in the seizure of El Cruce, is evident. Logistics has been abundant and has attracted people looking to make some economic profit. “There is a lot of food, transportation and lodging, that's why I looked around,” says one resident of Semprúm.

The Power of Keyneireth

The detained mayor was sustained not only by her link with the National Liberation Army (ELN), guerrilla money and drug trafficking, but also by her very close relationship with Aloha Joselyn Núñez Gutiérrez, deputy, former minister, vice-president of Indigenous Peoples of the PSUV and general coordinator of the United Movement of Venezuela, who also influenced the appointment of Roside Virginia González as Minister for Indigenous Peoples.

Although Mayor Keyrineth Selenia Fernández Epieyu was arrested, according to the official announcement, in a drug-carrying vehicle, which was found to be involved several deputies of the National Assembly, no property was confiscated, and the person she presented as her “right hand” was allowed, Yenny Rosilen Oberto Camargo, but that in reality it would be in whose name his assets were, that he eloped to Colombia where he owns property. There are also assets in the name of a family that was also imprisoned with the mayor in Piritu, Falcón state.

The National Anti-Drug Superintendence, under the command of Major General (GNB) Richard de Jesús López Vargas, has not been aware that Mayor Fernández Epieyu amassed a great fortune, that Oberto Camargo, who had no office in the mayor's office, acted as a person of power, always with the mayor and who exhibited riches of origin unknown, and she is currently in Cucuta with her husband who is a fugitive, related to the drug trafficking case where Keyrineth fell: among the assets there would be five homes, 12 luxury vehicles, among others.

In Casigua, they point out that the mayor has sprouted a large number of properties in recent years, one in her name and another from relatives and Oberto: the Eclipse nightclub, three houses, the Eclipse supermarket and a large number of vehicles. In the village there is very little family left of the mayor, because most of them left after her arrest. In his house there are almost a dozen relatives who have been taking out and selling the large amount of merchandise that the supermarket and also the nightclub had.

Some fell

In this drug trafficking network, Deputy Jeycar Pérez, of the Authentic Renewal Organization (ORA), captured weeks earlier, reports on Mayor Keyrineth González, who falls down with two relatives: Kelvin Epieyú Machado and Render José Villalobos Epieyu. Also the deputies: Jean Carlos Silva (Legislative Council of Táchira) and Deputy Taina González Rubio (PSUV Zulia); also Polizulia Gregorio Francisco Amariz Meléndez and a Colombian alias El Compa. Among the first detainees was Colombian Victor Julio Cano Páez, who would be the one who contacted public officials to serve drug trafficking.

Prosecutor Tarek William Saab said that it had been established that “in a caravan of three high-end vehicles a cache of drugs would be being transported”, which were located in the Piritu municipality of Falcón state: first a Toyota Tacoma van with secret compartments and six packs of cocaine, arresting the two people who were in it. At the same time, they stopped the Toyota Prado van, where Mayor Keinireth and Deputy Taina González were going, along with three men. In a wooded area they find the third van, with secret compartments and clothing with identifications alluding to the mayor.

The authorities found, related to the event, three speedboats, which were on the shores of the beach and which would be used to transport cocaine.

From the very moment Keyrineth Gonzalez is arrested, the mayor's reins are taken over by Añuely Montiel Machado, who claimed to be the mayor's cousin, and who initially denied the facts and urged the staff to continue working without paying attention to what was being said in the media. “It's all wrong, the mayor will be out in a few hours,” she finally dared to say. Montiel took the PDVAL and delivered the food, was in charge of running the mayor's office, while the confusion over the scandalous event lasted.

From the early hours of yesterday Saturday, they were expected to make an appearance at the place where the tracks were blocked in Semprum and Perijá, a commission where several deputies, senior military chiefs of Zulia and the head of the PSUV, Jacqueline Farías, would be present.

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