RA
His Early Years
Robert Alonso came into the world
in Cienfuegos, Cuba, in August of 1950, as a hurricane raged across the island.
From the very beginning, his life seemed destined to be marked by turbulence
and resilience. At the tender age of seven, his parents enrolled him in the
Loyola Military Academy in Havana. There, far from the warmth of his family, he
endured the harsh discipline of military life—an ordeal that weighed heavily on
a child so young. Each Friday, cadets were judged in a tribunal, and those
whose demerits outweighed their merits were condemned to remain at the academy
for the weekend. For Robert, this punishment meant being deprived of the
company of his cherished grandmother and two maternal aunts, who were his
refuge in those years.
During his time at Loyola, Robert
crossed paths with Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart—known as Fidelito—the eldest son of
Fidel Castro. In a fencing tournament, the two boys faced each other, a
symbolic encounter between children whose lives were already entangled in the
currents of Cuban history.
By January 1959, as the
revolution consolidated its power, Robert’s parents withdrew him from the
academy and returned him to Cienfuegos. Yet the turbulence followed. In
mid-1960, uprisings erupted in the Escambray Mountains, only thirty miles from
his home. His father, Ricardo Alonso, became a key figure in the Movimiento de
Recuperación Revolucionaria (MRR), coordinating guerrilla activities against
the Castro regime. The MRR, founded with CIA support by Manuel Artime, embodied
the desperate hope of those who resisted.
Castro’s response was merciless.
Through the campaign known as “The Escambray Cleanup,” vast stretches of forest
were burned, annihilating flora and fauna in a bid to root out the insurgents.
Robert’s home became a sanctuary for wounded anti-Castro fighters, their
presence a constant reminder of the perilous struggle unfolding around him.
The Destruction of “Korea”
On the eve of exile, as the
family prepared to board the Spanish transatlantic Marqués de Comillas
in Havana, Ricardo Alonso returned to “Korea”—the family’s beloved chalet in
Punta Gorda, Cienfuegos. Knowing the house would be seized and handed over to a
regime official, he chose to destroy its interior, a final act of defiance and
grief. The home, once filled with memories, was reduced to ruins, a symbol of
the loss and rupture that exile would soon bring.
The Maritime Journey
In April 1961, the Bay of Pigs
invasion unfolded in the Zapata Swamp, some ninety miles from Cienfuegos. The
MRR played a decisive role, with Manuel Artime appointed as the civil and
political leader of Brigade 2506, which landed at Playa Girón and Playa Larga
on April 17 of that year. Miraculously, Robert’s father survived and went
underground until August 23, 1961, when the family—along with their pet
“Chato”—finally escaped Cuba aboard the aging Spanish vessel Marqués de
Comillas. It was to be the ship’s final voyage before being destroyed by
fire on November 6, 1961, while under repair at the Astano shipyards in Fene,
near Ferrol, Galicia. Rumors spread that the blaze was the work of Castro’s
agents, for the vessel had been used between 1960 and 1961 to ferry thousands
of Cubans into exile through informal humanitarian operations organized by the
Catholic Church and Spanish institutions. Between 10,000 and 15,000 people had
been rescued before Cuba sealed its maritime borders.
Before departure, bound for La
Guaira, Venezuela, a revolutionary officer boarded the ship demanding the
surrender of Ricardo Alonso. The captain refused, declaring the vessel Spanish
territory. Convinced by the captain’s words, the officer himself requested
asylum and remained aboard, disembarking in Venezuela.
The crossing was harrowing. The Marqués
de Comillas, built in 1927 with a capacity for 900 passengers, carried more
than 1,500 exiles on its final voyage. Many had no cabins and were forced to
sleep in lifeboats. Robert and his brother Ricardo spent five nights in those
cramped vessels, enduring the terror of the journey. During the crossing, an
eight-year-old child fell overboard and could not be saved—a tragedy that
marked Robert forever. Hours after leaving Havana, the ship encountered a
Soviet vessel. Adults crowded dangerously to one side, hurling insults as the
Soviet ship passed, a moment of raw defiance in exile.
Arrival in Venezuela
Though the Alonsos intended to
continue to Spain, upon arrival in La Guaira they were met by an emissary of
President Rómulo Betancourt, who offered legal residency to all Cubans wishing
to remain in Venezuela. The family accepted, beginning a new life in the land
of Simón Bolívar.
The Urban Guerrilla Attack
In Caracas, the Betancourt
government had prepared a large house known as La Hogareña to
temporarily shelter Cuban arrivals. On November 1, 1961, while the Alonso
family was still lodged there, urban guerrillas of the Venezuelan Communist
Party (PCV) launched a violent attack. In the clash, communist militant Livia
Margarita Gouverneur Camero was killed in crossfire. Her death transformed her
into a symbol of revolutionary youth, remembered as the “Red Virgin of the
Students.” The event marked the beginning of a more intense phase of urban
guerrilla warfare in Venezuela.
Months later, after the Alonsos
had moved out of La Hogareña, Castro-communist guerrillas planted a
powerful bomb at the entrance of the house. Had it detonated, it would have
caused a massacre.
The Founding of the MRR in
Venezuela
In 1963, the MRR was formally
established in Caracas. Robert’s father, Don Ricardo, was appointed by Manuel
Artime himself—who stayed at the Alonso home—as the movement’s first secretary
general.
The Castro-communist guerrillas
continued their campaign until the arrival of President Rafael Caldera in March
1969. Meanwhile, Don Ricardo balanced his import business with organizing
anti-Castro operations from Venezuela. By the autumn of 1965, the political
climate had grown dangerously uncertain.
The Attack on the Alonso
Brothers
One afternoon in the San Bernardino district of Caracas, an urban guerrilla commando physically assaulted the Alonso brothers, mocking them as “little Cuban pigs.” Ricardo, two years older than Robert, was shot and wounded. Both survived by sheer miracle. A week later, Ricardo was sent to study in St. Petersburg, Florida, where one of Don Ricardo’s brothers lived in exile. Robert was sent to Spokane, Washington, to live with his uncle and godfather, a professor at Whitworth College.
After a year in Spokane with an American family arranged through a Presbyterian church, Robert moved to the outskirts of Deer Park, fifty miles away. There, he lived for several years with the Losh family, finding comfort and belonging in their home.
Years in Germany
After two years of higher studies
in business administration, Robert relocated to Berlin to study television and
film production. In West Berlin, he was recruited into a U.S. intelligence
office, later becoming part of what was known as “The War on the Roads of the
World,” targeting Castro’s interests across the globe.
In Berlin, Robert was trained for
an operation to assassinate Fidel Castro, who was scheduled to deliver a speech
in the summer of 1972. The mission was aborted for “administrative” reasons.
That same year, during his
internship at Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), Robert devised a plan to help a
soldier of the Grenztruppen der DDR—who was secretly collaborating with the
West—escape across the Spree River near the Schilling Bridge, part of the heavily
guarded frontier between East and West Berlin.
Under the guise of recreating the
deaths of three East Berliners, Robert brought SFB television crews to film
near the Eastern guard post, distracting soldiers while the escape was carried
out. It was a perilous mission in a sector where many had already fallen.
His Participation in Angola
In 1974, Robert Alonso married
his Cuban fiancée, who had arrived in Venezuela with her parents at the age of
seven. In September 1976, their first daughter was born. Barely two weeks
later, Alonso was ordered to travel to Angola, where Cuban military forces were
completing a year of active involvement in the African nation’s civil war. By
that time, tens of thousands of Cuban soldiers were engaged in combat.
By late 1976, Castro had deployed
several divisions of Cuban fighters to Angola. Desertions were frequent; dozens
of soldiers defected daily to join UNITA or the FNLA, including officers. In
October of that year, Alonso was sent to interview many of these defectors,
returning to Angola repeatedly over the following years.
The Recruitment of Antonio
Cisneros
In mid-1978, Alonso met and
recruited Antonio (“Tony”) José Cisneros Rendiles, son of Cuban-Venezuelan
magnate Don Diego “Cisneros” Bermúdez. Tony, then a vice president of the
powerful Cisneros Organization, was passionate about aviation and owned a Cessna
175, nicknamed Tarita.
In July 1979, during a visit to
Nicaraguan leader Anastasio Somoza, Alonso and Cisneros used the small aircraft
to smuggle in a cache of modified T-22 assault pistols. Their escape from
Nicaragua was miraculous: the plane was struck several times by rebel fire near
Managua’s airport, yet they managed to land safely in Honduras.
Soon after, they abandoned the
Cessna and purchased a twin-engine Seneca II, founding CIALÓN SR.
(Cisneros-Alonso), a company that competed with the Cisneros brothers Gustavo
and Ricardo, who had earlier established Castor Trading in Miami.
In February 1981, the
Cisneros-Raue and Alonso-Etcheverry couples planned a vacation in Aruba.
Alonso, then living in Miami, was delayed, and the Cisneros couple flew ahead.
Their plane never arrived. It vanished somewhere between Caracas and Curaçao,
leaving no trace of wreckage or bodies. The tragedy spawned countless theories,
some bordering on the novelistic. Alonso later recounted the ordeal in his book
Estafa Doble y Agravada.
The Cuban Infiltration in
Venezuela
Toward the end of Carlos Andrés
Pérez’s first presidency, and at Castro’s urging, the “Agreement for the
Reunification of Cuban Families in Venezuela” was signed. Ostensibly
humanitarian, the plan allowed Cuban exiles in Venezuela to reunite with
relatives from the island. In reality, it was a covert operation designed by
Manuel Piñeiro Losada, head of Cuba’s Department of America, to infiltrate
Venezuelan society with G2 intelligence agents.
Luis Herrera Campíns inherited
the agreement upon assuming the presidency in 1979. Gonzalo García Bustillos,
recruited by Alonso, became Secretary of the Presidential Office and appointed
Alonso as presidential commissioner to evaluate the program.
Alonso soon discovered that many
of the “family members” arriving had no relatives in Venezuela. They were Cuban
agents. By the time the infiltration was exposed, it was too late. In a daring
operation, Alonso and DISIP agents captured the head of the Cuban infiltrators.
Instead of prosecuting him, they released him, ensuring Castro would believe he
had confessed everything to Venezuelan authorities. The regime withdrew many
agents, but not before recruiting Venezuelans—including Nicolás Maduro Moros and
Adán Chávez Frías—who were trained in Cuba and later reinserted into Venezuelan
society, shaping the country’s future.
At Alonso’s recommendation,
President Herrera revoked the agreement.
Assignment in Afghanistan
In August 1979, Alonso was
dispatched to Afghanistan to assess the presence of Cuban advisors in Kabul.
U.S. intelligence suspected a Soviet military intervention was imminent. Though
Cuban presence was minimal, some units did participate in Afghan combat
operations, foreshadowing the Soviet invasion later that year.
Operation in Grenada
In August 1983, Alonso was sent
to Grenada to prepare logistics for “Operation Urgent Fury.” Cuban soldiers and
agents had established a strong presence on the island. Alonso returned to
Venezuela in October, just before the U.S. invasion began on October 25.
The Bombing of the Cuban Plane
On October 6, 1976, tragedy
struck with the bombing of Cubana Flight 455, a DC-8 en route from Guyana to
Havana via Trinidad, Barbados, and Jamaica. The plane exploded near Barbados,
killing 73 people. Castro concealed the deaths of seven Cuban generals aboard,
blaming anti-Castro activists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch.
Alonso was tasked with
investigating. His findings absolved Posada, Bosch, and the alleged material
perpetrators, Hernán Ricardo Lozano and Freddy Lugo. In September 1980, a
Caracas war tribunal acquitted them, though they remained imprisoned pending
confirmation by General Elio García Barrios, a Castro ally. Alonso produced
photographic evidence of García Barrios embracing Castro, exposing the bias.
In 1985, Alonso released the
documentary El Juicio del Siglo, later followed by his book Los
Generales de Castro, accusing President Carlos Andrés Pérez of complicity.
Shortly after, Alonso survived an assassination attempt when his car exploded
moments after he and his family stepped out. The attack forced the family into
a second exile in Miami.
The Escape of Luis Posada
The true purpose behind the
documentary was to expose the manipulations of the trial. By then, the four
defendants had already spent nine years in prison—five of those years after
being acquitted in the first instance by a military tribunal.
It was at this point that Alonso
devised the plan to secure the escape of Luis Posada Carriles from the
maximum-security Penitenciaría General de Venezuela in the sweltering
state of Guárico. The same offer was extended to the other three defendants,
but none accepted.
Ultimately, General Elio García Barrios chose
indecision. In 1986—six years after the acquittal by the Permanent War
Council—the case was transferred to civilian courts, where it should have been
tried from the beginning. By then, Posada Carriles was already free.
The Falklands War
In April 1982, the conflict known
as the Falklands War erupted, as Argentina attempted to reclaim the islands
occupied by Britain since 1833. Before the British takeover, sovereignty over
the islands had been disputed by France, Spain, and Britain.
Following Argentina’s
independence from Spain, the new government asserted control, appointing Luis
Vernet as political and military commander. But on January 8, 1833, the British
corvette HMS Clio arrived at Puerto Soledad, demanding surrender.
Commander José María Pinedo withdrew without a fight, and the British flag was
raised.
The war began on April 2, 1982,
when Argentine forces landed on the islands under the orders of the ruling
military junta led by General Leopoldo Galtieri. The conflict quickly
internationalized: the United States sided with Britain, while Castro’s Cuba supported
Argentina.
Alonso was dispatched to evaluate
Cuban involvement. Comodoro Rivadavia became a strategic hub, serving as a
logistical and medical center for Argentina’s war effort. From its airfield,
Hercules C-130 aircraft ferried troops and supplies to the islands.
On June 12, Alonso arrived at the
IX Air Brigade in Comodoro Rivadavia aboard a Bell UH-1H “Huey” helicopter. A
mechanical failure caused the aircraft to crash abruptly, injuring Alonso’s
spine—a condition that has afflicted him ever since.
Two days later, Argentina
surrendered. General Menéndez handed over Puerto Argentino to British forces,
ending the war. Argentines, passionate about football, consoled themselves by
saying they had finished “second place” in the Falklands War.
Operations in Central America
After his escape, Alonso
relocated Posada Carriles to Central America, where he became deeply involved
in the Nicaraguan civil war on the side of the Contras. Throughout the 1980s,
Posada worked as a clandestine operator and advisor, training fighters in bases
across Honduras and El Salvador.
Operating under the alias “Ramón
Medina,” Posada coordinated covert flights of weapons and supplies from
Ilopango Air Base in El Salvador.
In October 1986, after the
downing of a CIA plane in Nicaragua that killed pilot William Cooper and two
others, while Eugene Hasenfus was captured alive, Posada was moved to
Guatemala. Under the protection of President Vinicio Cerezo, he trained
Guatemalan forces in intelligence operations.
Failed Assassination Attempt
On February 27, 1990, Posada
survived an assassination attempt, exchanging gunfire with suspected Castro
agents. He was struck multiple times, including wounds to his heart and tongue,
leaving him with lasting speech impairments.
In Venezuela, where he had sought
asylum after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Posada rose to become General
Commissioner of the DISIP, the country’s political police. There, he dismantled
Castro-backed urban guerrillas. Born and raised in Cienfuegos, Cuba—the same
city as the Alonso family—Posada and Alonso maintained a steadfast friendship
in exile.
Return to Angola
In 1988, Robert Alonso returned
to Angola, where he joined Jonas Malheiro Savimbi, the leader of UNITA, in
celebrating victory at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. As part of the ritual
festivities, Alonso was compelled to ingest pieces of the entrails of fallen
MPLA fighters—a shocking initiation into the brutal realities of war. Savimbi
himself would later be killed on February 22, 2002, in Lucusse, Moxico
Province, during a clash with Angolan government forces.
The Purchase of Land in
Hatillo
In February 1989, Alonso, his
wife, and their two eldest children (two more would be born later) acquired 500
hectares in the hills of Hatillo. There they built the Daktari Farm, which
would gain notoriety in May 2004 as the site of the infamous “Daktari
Massacre.”
The Luanda Massacre
By November 1992, Alonso was in
Moxico Province, Angola, a UNITA stronghold that offered Savimbi relative
security against MPLA forces. That September, Angola held its first general
elections under the Bicesse Accords. The MPLA declared victory in what was
widely seen as fraudulent elections, sparking an uprising by the opposition.
The violence culminated in the
“Luanda Massacre”—also known as the “Halloween Massacre” or the “Three-Day
War”—which left between 10,000 and 30,000 dead. Alonso took part in the
fighting that reignited the civil war, a conflict that would drag on until 2002.
The Coup Attempt of Hugo
Chávez
On February 4, 1992, the
little-known Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías attempted to overthrow
President Carlos Andrés Pérez. The Cold War had only recently ended, and Alonso
was already retired, living peacefully on his farm with his family, workers,
and animals.
Work as a Television Producer
Years earlier, Alonso had
alternated his anti-Castro activism with a career in television production,
hosting major programs in Venezuela and Puerto Rico.
His journalistic career began in
July 1979, working sporadically—“between firefights”—as an independent producer
for the Spanish International Network (SIN), the first major Spanish-language
television network in the United States. In 1987, SIN was sold and transformed
into what is now Univision.
Leveraging his connections,
Alonso secured a contract with SIN to cover the war in Nicaragua. On July 10,
1979, he interviewed dictator Anastasio Somoza in his bunker—just one week
before Somoza was deposed.
Investigation in Panama
Later that same year, returning
from Afghanistan, Alonso was sent to Panama to investigate Cuban enterprises
registered there as Panamanian companies, designed to circumvent the U.S.
embargo. These operations were tied to MINCEX, CIMEX S.A., and the Cuban
Central Bank.
Twin brothers Patricio and
Antonio (“Tony”) de la Guardia, both Castro’s colonels, were deeply involved in
these covert operations. Tony, a Special Troops officer of the MININT, oversaw
many of the clandestine commercial structures, while Patricio managed
logistical and financial support.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Cuba
used Panamanian shell companies like CIMEX S.A. to handle foreign currency,
import goods, and conduct international trade. These were controlled by MININT
and the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Panama’s offshore system provided cover for
intelligence, commerce, and even narcotrafficking.
By 1989, Tony de la Guardia was
executed for drug trafficking and corruption, while Patricio was sentenced to
thirty years in prison. Alonso’s investigation into hundreds of suspect
companies laid the groundwork for uncovering the network that culminated in
“Cause No. 1,” which led to the execution of General Arnaldo Ochoa Sánchez,
Tony de la Guardia Font, Amado Padrón Trujillo, and Jorge Martínez Valdés on
July 13, 1989.
Equine Semen Laboratory
Alonso’s second son had been born
in January 1979. By 1992, Alonso had built a laboratory on his farm for the
extraction and cryogenic processing of equine semen. He owned several prized
Colombian Paso horses of regional importance. By then, he had fully retired
from activism, dedicating himself to the serenity of rural life in the midst of
lush tropical forest.
The Farm in Curaçao
In 1995, Robert Alonso partnered
with former South African army officer Mervyn Malán—whom he had met in
Angola—and Dutch entrepreneur Joop van den Broek to establish the Curaçao
Ostrich & Game Farm. Dedicated to breeding black-necked domestic
ostriches, the venture soon expanded into Venezuela with the creation of AVCA (Asociación
Venezolana de Criadores de Avestruces). By 1997, the farm was exporting
ostrich meat from Curaçao to Venezuela, introducing a new and exotic product to
the region.
Chávez Comes to Power
Just as Alonso believed his past
as an activist had faded into obscurity, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías rose to power
in Venezuela, hand in hand with Fidel Castro. With Chávez’s arrival, the
specters of Alonso’s past struggles returned, and the country descended into
turmoil.
Alonso and the DEA
Beyond its fight against drug
trafficking, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also combats
organized crime, money laundering, and arms trafficking when linked to
narcotics. Some of Alonso’s colleagues, having left federal investigative
agencies, began collaborating with the DEA.
It soon became clear that
Chávez’s regime was forging ties with Colombia’s narco-communist guerrillas,
particularly the FARC. As Chávez purged and reorganized Venezuela’s armed
forces, the FARC provided paramilitary training and defensive support. Recognizing
that confrontation with Chávez was inevitable, Alonso chose to collaborate with
the DEA—a decision that proved perilous.
In Caracas, calls to the DEA
office at the U.S. consulate were answered with the phrase: “Good morning,
DEA!” In Venezuela, it was alarmingly easy to bribe operators from the
country’s three telephone companies to obtain records of incoming and outgoing
calls, along with subscriber information. This made it simple to identify who
was communicating with the DEA.
To avoid detection, Alonso
acquired an unregistered phone used exclusively for DEA communications. Even
so, several DEA collaborators were later assassinated by suspected traffickers.
Alonso survived by operating under a pseudonym and never using his personal
phone for sensitive calls.
Lessons from Tehran
The risks of intelligence work
were underscored by history. In November 1979, Iranian students loyal to the
Islamic Revolution stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding it for 444 days.
They seized sensitive information from embassy computers, prompting a global
ban on storing classified data in U.S. diplomatic computers—a restriction still
in place in 2003, when Alonso was working with the DEA in Venezuela.
Because of this, DEA agents at
the Caracas consulate could not store sensitive files electronically. Alonso
became their safeguard, receiving information and saving it on external hard
drives at his Daktari Farm. Whenever the DEA required data, Alonso was called
upon to provide it. When he was eventually forced to flee Venezuela, the only
items he carried with him were two external drives containing all the sensitive
information the DEA had been unable to preserve.
Collaboration with the DEA
During the years Alonso
collaborated with the DEA, Venezuela was already sliding into a deep economic
depression under the second presidency of Rafael Caldera. This environment
fueled the rise of low-level narcotics trafficking, with marginalized individuals
recruited as “mules.” These couriers ingested latex glove fingers filled with
cocaine, later expelled upon arrival at their destinations. Most were drawn
from impoverished neighborhoods in Caracas and other major cities.
As an activist, Alonso had once
obtained a CD containing voter registration data: names, identity card numbers,
and polling stations—information that could be cross-referenced with travel
records. The DEA maintained strong ties with American Airlines, which operated
daily flights between Venezuela and the United States. Combined with
Venezuela’s social security database, which tracked contributions by ID number,
it was possible to estimate the age and employment status of travelers.
By analyzing short-term trips—two
to four days—taken by young Venezuelans aged 21 to 30 from marginal sectors,
Alonso could identify potential mules. Once in U.S. territory, they could be
tracked, even by planting GPS devices in luggage, to uncover distribution
networks. Rather than arresting the mule at the airport, the strategy aimed to
follow the trail to the “head of the snake,” dismantling trafficking rings at
their source.
DEA supervisors in Caracas
approved Alonso’s proposal enthusiastically. Yet the plan collapsed: there was
no cooperation between the DEA, Immigration, and local police forces. Without
coordination, the program was discarded.
The Limits of Bureaucracy
The DEA office in Caracas could
authorize only $3,000 in expenses. Anything beyond required approval from
Bogotá, a process that dragged on endlessly. In October 2003, intelligence in
Bogotá reported a shipment of ten tons of narcotics bound for Europe through
Venezuela’s eastern port of Guanta—controlled by Chávez’s regime and later
infamous as the hub of the “Cartel of the Suns.”
The operation’s costs far
exceeded the local budget. Rather than wait for Bogotá’s approval, Alonso
financed the mission himself. On October 31, 2003, his contact in San Antonio,
near the Colombian-Venezuelan border, confirmed the shipment was moving through
a ranch straddling both countries—a known corridor for Colombian drugs destined
for Venezuela and beyond, to Honduras, Mexico, or Europe.
When Alonso arrived at the DEA
office in Caracas, he was greeted by an agent dressed as “Dracula.” It was
Halloween, and the staff were more interested in festivities than in
intelligence briefings.
Weekends were particularly
vulnerable. DEA agents often traveled for leisure, a routine well known to
traffickers, who timed shipments accordingly.
A Bitter Revelation
On November 5, 2003, the DEA
hosted a farewell party for an agent named Chávez, a Mexican-American who had
become close to Alonso. When Alonso asked why the agency had failed to act on
the shipment, Chávez responded with a cryptic question: “Do you believe in
the Cancer League?”
Confused, Alonso pressed for an
explanation. Chávez clarified: just as the Cancer League was not truly
interested in curing cancer, the DEA was not truly interested in eradicating
narcotrafficking. Instead, it operated on a “band system.”
When drug prices soared in five
or ten U.S. cities, it signaled scarcity, and the DEA would “loosen the clamp.”
When prices dropped, flooding the streets, the agency would “tighten the
screw.”
For Alonso, the revelation was
devastating: the war on drugs was not a war to win, but a system to manage.
The DEA and the Rangel Affair
In November 2003, the DEA handed
Alonso a list of phone numbers to investigate, as was routine. When he received
information from his contacts inside Venezuelan telecommunications companies,
he discovered that one of the numbers belonged to the private cell phone of
José Vicente Rangel, then Vice President of Venezuela. The revelation set off
alarms: the DEA had requested surveillance of the vice president’s personal
line.
By 2005, the Chávez government
expelled the DEA from Venezuela, accusing the agency of covert espionage and
involvement in narcotrafficking. The regime eventually realized that the DEA
had ordered the monitoring of Rangel’s phone, a discovery that helped justify
its expulsion. From that moment forward, Chávez and his cartel operated with
impunity, dispatching massive shipments of cocaine through Venezuela—used as a
“bridge country” with the participation of the FARC—destined for the United
States and Europe.
The DEA already knew that most of
Venezuela’s drug exports traveled by air, not by sea. When José Manuel Zelaya
Rosales became president of Honduras in January 2006, Venezuelan cocaine was
routed through Honduras before reaching the United States or Mexico.
During Alonso’s collaboration
with the DEA, he was assigned to Margarita Island to investigate the growing
Muslim presence in Venezuela, supported by Chávez’s government. Intelligence
reports linked Muslim networks to financing and logistics in the narcotics
trade, laying the foundation for what became known as the “Cartel of the Suns.”
La Guarimba & The
Miraflores Massacre
On April 11, 2002, the
“Miraflores Massacre” left at least 19 dead and more than 120 wounded. Alonso
realized that protesters could not remain in open streets—“calles
escampadas”—where they were vulnerable to slaughter. From this insight, the
concept of La Guarimba was born.
Together with three companions,
including a retired general familiar with the communist version of the tactic,
Alonso adapted the idea. In Caribbean dialect, guarimba means “refuge.”
It was also the name of a children’s street game. In the 1950s, communists had
staged attacks and fled to Catholic churches, knowing police would not enter
“the House of God.”
Alonso reimagined the tactic:
citizens would paralyze the country by blocking intersections near their
homes—their refuges, their guarimbas. Once the nation was immobilized, “others”
could act.
With more than 70,000 followers
via email, Alonso promoted La Guarimba nationwide. Days before the first
uprising, he appeared on the prime-time program Grado 33, subtly
advocating for the tactic by recalling a “guarimba” in East Berlin during the
demolition of the Berlin Wall in June 1990.
The First Guarimba – 2004
On February 17, 2004, Venezuela
erupted in its first Guarimba. The protests lasted until March 7, when
Pompeyo Márquez, a lifelong communist infiltrated into what became known as the
“False Opposition,” appeared on national radio and television to neutralize the
movement. He claimed the objectives had been achieved because Chávez had agreed
to a recall referendum.
The referendum was held on August
15, 2004, remembered as the “Mega Fraud.”
Escape Through the Colombian
Jungle
After the neutralization of La
Guarimba, Chávez launched an unrelenting persecution against Alonso,
raiding his farm three times without success. Alonso had already gone
underground. Within thirty days, he crossed Venezuela through clandestine
“green paths” into Colombia. From Bogotá, he boarded a plane to Miami,
beginning his third exile.
The Capture of Paramilitaries
and the Daktari Massacre
While already in Miami, Alonso
learned of the “Seizure of Daktari” and later of the “Daktari Massacre.”
On May 9, 2004—Mother’s Day—the
regime claimed to have discovered 150 Colombian paramilitaries at the Daktari
Farm, property of the Alonso-Etcheverry family. That same day, Chávez announced
their capture, branding Alonso a “gusano,” an anti-Castro worm.
The regime transported busloads
of Chávez supporters to the farm. More than twenty employees were executed on
the spot. Two foster children of the Alonso family, aged 12 and 10, were
brutally killed, and the estate itself was reduced to rubble. The main house, a
towering structure equivalent to four stories, was demolished.
The animals were slaughtered
savagely: over forty pedigree horses—some dismembered to terrorize
neighbors—eighteen German shepherds, ostriches, ocelots, monkeys, and countless
exotic creatures.
With Alonso’s whereabouts
unknown, the regime offered a $2 million reward for information. When he
surfaced in Miami, television and radio stations rushed to interview him. Even
Japan TV arrived, and Chávez later commissioned them to produce a documentary
titled A Revolution in Danger, portraying Alonso as the threat.
Attempted Guarimba – 2007
In January 2007, Alonso sought to
revive the spirit of La Guarimba. Luis Edgar Devia Silva, alias “Raúl
Reyes,” a FARC commander, ordered guerrillas operating in Venezuela to retreat
into their hideouts.
When Reyes was killed in Ecuador
in March 2008, his seized computers revealed a message from guerrilla Alba
Sepúlveda (“Tania” or “Catherine”), dated May 29, 2007, informing Reyes that
the danger of La Guarimba had passed, and that “Tino” had ordered the
guerrillas to stand down.
Supporting McCain’s Campaign
Alonso continued his crusade
against communism. In 2008, he was asked to support Senator John McCain’s
presidential campaign, traveling across U.S. states bordering Mexico to rally
Hispanic voters.
Alonso and His Truck
By mid-2008, Alonso began working
as a truck driver for Werner Enterprises, traversing the United States and much
of Canada. His spinal injury from the Comodoro Rivadavia crash eventually
forced him to abandon the grueling work of driving eighteen-wheelers.
Attempted Guarimba – 2009
In January 2009, Alonso again
tried to spark La Guarimba. This time, success seemed within reach.
Chávez, deeply fearful of the movement, appeared on national radio and
television on January 9, threatening to “raspar” (dismiss or eliminate) his
entire cabinet if they allowed a second Guarimba. He ordered his
interior minister to unleash “the good gas”—tear gas—on students who joined the
protests.
Sean Penn vs. María Conchita Alonso
In December 2011, Alonso’s
sister, actress María Conchita Alonso, clashed publicly with actor Sean Penn at
Los Angeles Airport. The two had starred together in the 1988 film Colors.
Penn, who had visited Chávez in Venezuela, accused Robert Alonso of plotting to
assassinate the Venezuelan leader. The confrontation went viral across media
outlets.
Conferences with the Tea Party
In 2012, Alonso toured 48 of the
50 U.S. states, warning Americans of the dangers communism posed to their
nation. His speeches, delivered at Tea Party conferences, resonated with
audiences concerned about freedom and democracy.
General Elio Aponte-Aponte
In April 2012, General Elio
Aponte-Aponte fled Venezuela, accused of narcotrafficking. Years earlier, as a
colonel, he had served as chief prosecutor in the trial of the alleged
Colombian paramilitaries supposedly captured at the Alonso-Etcheverry family’s
Daktari Farm.
The trial, which began in 2005,
became infamous as the largest in Venezuelan history, with more than fifty
defendants—not counting those tried in absentia, including Robert Alonso
himself.
As a reward for his role,
Aponte-Aponte was promoted to general and later appointed magistrate of the
Supreme Court of Justice, presiding over the Criminal Cassation Chamber.
Upon arriving in Costa Rica, he
gave a historic interview to Venezuelan journalist Verioska Velasco, admitting
that President Chávez had personally ordered him to secure a favorable verdict
for the regime in the Daktari case. He confessed it had all been a presidential
fabrication—an expensive operation designed to neutralize Alonso.
Days later, Aponte-Aponte was
flown to the United States aboard a DEA aircraft, becoming the highest-ranking
Venezuelan officer to collaborate with U.S. authorities.
The Second Guarimba – 2014
Through the Inter-American
Institute for Democracy, founded by Alonso in 2007, student leaders from
Venezuela were trained in Miami in late 2013 for a second Guarimba. The
uprising erupted in San Cristóbal, near the Colombian border, in February 2014,
shaking Nicolás Maduro’s fragile regime to its core.
By then, Chávez had died at
Havana’s CIMEQ hospital in December 2012—his body reportedly preserved in cold
storage—though his death was officially announced on March 5, 2013 in Caracas.
From exile in Miami, Alonso
directed the civic rebellion through hundreds of Zello channels and online
messages. The movement spread rapidly, paralyzing much of the country.
But infiltration by regime agents
distorted its nonviolent nature. In March 2014, General Miguel Rodríguez Torres
met with student leaders, offering them privileges if they abandoned the
protests. The deal worked: after thousands detained, hundreds killed, and
countless maimed, the uprising collapsed. Many of those student leaders later
became “opposition” mayors and legislators in Venezuela’s National Assembly.
The Assassination Attempt
Accusation
In June 2014, Vice President
Jorge Rodríguez appeared on national television alongside Maduro’s inner
circle, accusing Alonso of plotting an assassination. Days later, Maduro
himself accused Robert and his sister María Conchita of financing the Guarimba.
Public Letter to Donald Trump
In 2020, Alonso published an open
letter to President Donald Trump, condemning him for supporting and financing
what Alonso described as the farce of Juan Guaidó’s interim government, which
he denounced as a project of international socialism.
Guaidó in Miami
At a Guaidó event in a Miami
hotel, Alonso confronted the opposition leader, warning Venezuelans of his
false promises. The incident nearly led to Alonso’s arrest by anti-terror
police.
Feature Film “Operación Orión”
On May 9, 2024, Venezuela
premiered the film Operación Orión, presenting the chavista version of
the events at Daktari Farm on May 9, 2004—twenty years earlier.
A Life in Exile
At seventy-five, Alonso lives
somewhere in South Florida, disillusioned and withdrawn, watching the United
States—a nation he always loved and respected—disintegrate before his eyes.
Otros temas
* La droga es enviada por avión a Honduras y México
* Invasión musulmana en Margarita
* Entrenamiento de los estudiantes venezolanos en Miami 2013
* Acusado de intento de magnicidio junto a Köesling
* Participación en la campaña de McCain / Nació en Colón, Panamá y la esposa tenía una fábrica en Cuba de cerveza.
* Película de Operación Orión
* La Guarimba lo tiene loco
* 1974 Incursión en el Esequibo
* Detección de infidelidades con ICICA
* Fundación del CORU
* Juicio contra Rodríguez Torres en España
* Fundación Doña Petra del Amo
* Los peloteros cubanos que desertarían en Caracas
* Divorcio y matrimonio con Clarita
* Planificación de un atentado contra un buque petrolero en Venezuela
* Escándalo del Banco Latino
* El Bono del Banco Latino en Curazao
* Pradito y Miami TV
* Su mamá sacó $ 50 de Cuba
* La Crisis de octubre en casa de Chucho
* Complicidad con Fidel Castro del General de la Corte Suprema
* El Cierre de la Campaña de McCain en Miami
* Trabajando en la ambulancia
* Trabajando en el camión
* Amenazas de Orlando García en el restaurante chino
* Viajando con el Tea Party por EEUU
* Invitación a nuestro matrimonio a Gerald Ford
* Intento de extradición en EEUU y fuga hacia Washington State
* Trabajo de cachifo con Tom McCain
* El milagro de la mamá de Tom
* Secuestro de María Carolina
* Ultimatum de los estudiantes y escándalo en Doral
* Actas de la Traición
* Chávez en Cienfuegos
* La cubanita de Angola
* El depósito en el banco del aeropuerto de Atlanta
* La Hoja Criminal según el Granma
* Incursión en Cuba
* Juanito Piña
* El Hermano Buyuyo
* Posada y el mecanógrafo que le jugó una broma
* Torturas en Villa Marista
* 100mil detenidos a raíz de la Invasión de Bahía de Cochinos
* Record de secuestros de niños venezolanos en 1961
* La llegada a Venezuela y las pensiones de mala muerte
* Demanda a la nación
* Clarita
* Helga y su muerte en Berlín
* Entrenando a los nietos como disparar y el campo de tiro de Daktari
* El terremoto de Caracas de 1967
* Conociendo al hijo de Tony Cisneros en Daktari
* Amenazas de muerte por parte por parte de Darsi Ferrer