Hugo Carvajal

Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, nicknamed El Pollo ("The Chicken")(born April 1, 1960), is a Venezuelan diplomat, retired general and narcoterrorist. He was the head of the military intelligence in Venezuela during Hugo Chávez's government, from July 2004 to December 2011. Carvajal was arrested in Spain on 12 April 2019 based on an arrest warrant from the United States for 2011 drug trafficking charges. After the Spanish courts approved his extradition to the United States Carvajal went into hiding. On 26 March 2020, the U.S. Department of State offered $10 million for information to bring him to justice in relation to drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. In 2021 he was arrested in Madrid and was extradited two years later to the United States. In 2025, he pled guilty to all criminal charges.

Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios was born on 1 April 1960, in Puerto La Cruz, Anzoátegui state. He finished his studies at the military academy in 1981.

His sister, Wilma Carvajal, was the Mayor of the Cedeño Municipality.

Carvajal met Hugo Chávez in 1980 at the Military Academy of Venezuela, where Chávez was his instructor. Carvajal took part in the February 1992 Venezuelan coup attempt organised by Chávez against the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez. Participants of that coup were granted a general amnesty from president Rafael Caldera in 1994.

In September 2008, the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) accused Carvajal of helping Colombian guerrilla FARC in its drug trafficking activities by protecting them from drugs seizures, supplying weapons and providing with Venezuelan official documents. He was placed on the list together with Henry Rangel Silva, Director of Venezuela's Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services, who later became Minister of Defense and Governor of Trujillo and with Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, former Minister of the Interior & Security.

Carvajal was appointed head of the National Official against Organized Crime and Financing of Terrorism in October 2012. In April 2013 he was appointed as the replacement for Wilfredo Figueroa Chacín as head of the Military Counterintelligence.

Venezuela appointed Carvajal as its consul in Aruba in January 2014, however he had not been officially accepted by the Dutch government. He was arrested in Aruba on 22 July 2014 on a U.S. arrest warrant. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro protested saying Carvajal had diplomatic immunity. As a protest Venezuela closed its airspace to planes coming from Aruba and Curaçao for several hours, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded. Maduro also threatened to slow down business at the Isla oil refinery on Curaçao. On 28 July, he was released and flown back to Venezuela by private plane. Aruba officials declared that Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans had decided to recognize Carvajal's immunity. The Netherlands declared Carvajal persona non grata. In a public appearance Maduro stated: "We had a plan to escalate tension in Latin America".

One day after his release information was released that Venezuela had sent four military ships close to the shores of Aruba while Carvajal was detained. The United States Department of State said that it had evidence for severe threats by Venezuela against both Aruba and the Netherlands. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had contact with Venezuela about the military ships, with Venezuela stating that they were returning from an exercise. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affair also stated that Carvajal was released after strictly judicial considerations based on international law.