On Wednesday, LindellTV tweeted the short video above, accompanied by the following text:
In a jaw-dropping new interview, Patrick Byrne says US officials were bribed by the Venezuelan government and some are STILL in power: “We have people in U.S. custody who were in the room when Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro arranged $20 million in payments… to US officials.” Byrne says he’s under oath not to name names – until certain arrests are made. But he confirms:
• “Yes, they actively interfered and delayed President Trump on Venezuela and the voting machines.”
• “There are people of such seniority, secretly on the payroll, it will shake this nation.”
• “We have diaries. We have the witnesses. It’s all documented.” He adds: “Some of these traitors have already been exposed. More are coming.” This wasn’t just foreign corruption. This was an intelligence-level counterattack against America… from within.
The full interview can be seen here, on LindellTV.com.
On the same day, The Dallas Express newspaper released the bombshell report about Venezuela’s former intelligence chief, Hugo Carvajal, publishing his open letter to President Trump, republished below.
Carvajal was recently photographed at the Metopolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, NY with alleged UnitedHealthcare shooter, Luigi Mangione.
Former Maduro Spy Chief’s Letter To Trump Seeks to Expose Narco-Terrorist War Against US
The Dallas Express has obtained an explosive letter addressed to President Donald Trump from Hugo Carvajal Barrios — the former Director of Military Intelligence for Venezuela and once one of the most powerful figures inside the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.
The letter, shared exclusively with DX by Carvajals attorney, Robert Feitel — a former senior Justice Department prosecutor — marks the first time the retired Major General has put these warnings on the record since pleading guilty earlier this year in a US federal narco-terrorism case.
Carvajal — extradited from Spain after a lengthy international manhunt — says he is writing “to atone” and to alert Americans to what he describes as a coordinated, state-directed campaign targeting the United States.
The DX Brief:
- Former Venezuelan intelligence chief Hugo Carvajal — once a top Chávez and Maduro insider — pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in June and now warns that Venezuela is a “narco-terrorist organization” intentionally targeting the United States.
- Carvajal alleges the Maduro regime weaponized cocaine, collaborated with FARC, ELN, Cuban intelligence, and Hezbollah, and exported violent criminal networks — including Tren de Aragua — into the United States.
- He asserts Venezuelan and Cuban intelligence infiltrated U.S. institutions for two decades, including military installations.
- He claims Smartmatic was developed inside Venezuela as an election-manipulation tool later deployed abroad.
- Carvajal says he supports Trump’s Venezuela policies and stands ready to provide further details to federal authorities.
A Warning Delivered From Inside Venezuela’s Inner Circle
Carvajal — widely known by his nickname “El Pollo” — spent years inside the top tiers of Venezuela’s security apparatus and dealt directly with the senior leadership of both Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.
Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty in federal court to charges stemming from a conspiracy that moved cocaine into the United States and provided support to Colombia’s FARC guerrillas. Prosecutors say at the center of the so-called Cartel de los Soles, a network of Venezuelan military officials accused of weaponizing cocaine and the drug trade against Americans.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking Thursday on Hannity, issued one of the strongest statements yet:
“The Maduro regime is not a legitimate government. What it is is a transshipment organization… allowing cocaine and other drugs to move through Venezuela on airplanes and ships headed toward the United States.”
The US State Department currently maintains a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest — a figure publicly announced by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this year.
The following letter reflects Carvajal’s statements and claims; The Dallas Express has not independently verified all of the underlying allegations.
Below is the full text of the letter provided to The Dallas Express by attorney Robert Feitel:
Dear Mr. President Trump and The People of the United States,
My name is Hugo Carvajal Barrios. For many years, I was a high-ranking member of the Venezuelan regime. I was a three-star general trusted by both Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro and served as Director of Military Intelligence and a Deputy in the National Assembly. Today, I sit in an American prison because I voluntarily plead guilty to the crimes charged against me: a narco-terrorism conspiracy. I write to atone by telling the full truth so that the United States can protect itself from the dangers I witnessed for so many years.
I publicly broke with the Maduro regime in 2017 and fled my country, knowing that I face criminal charges in the United States. In doing so, I became their enemy. Knowing the risks, I acted with the strongest conviction to dismantle Maduro’s criminal regime and bring freedom to my country. Today, I see the need to address the American people about the reality of what the Venezuelan regime truly is—and why President Trump’s policies are not only correct, but absolutely necessary to the United States’ national security.
- Narco-Terrorism
I personally witnessed how Hugo Chavez’s government became a criminal organization that is now run by Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, and other senior regime officials.
The purpose of this organization, now known as the Cartel of the Suns is to weaponize drugs against the United States. The drugs that reached your cities through new routes were not accidents of corruption nor just the work of independent traffickers; they were deliberate policies coordinated by the Venezuelan regime against the United States.
This plan was suggested by the Cuban regime to Chávez in the mid-2000s and has been successfully executed with help from FARC, ELN, Cuban operatives, and Hezbollah. The regime has provided weapons, passports, and impunity for these terrorist organizations to operate freely from Venezuela against the United States.
- Tren de Aragua
I was present when decisions were made to organize and weaponize criminal gangs across Venezuela to protect the regime—among them the group known as Tren de Aragua. Chávez ordered the recruitment of criminal leaders inside and outside prisons to defend “the revolution” in exchange for impunity. After Chávez died, Maduro expanded this strategy by exporting criminality and chaos abroad to target Venezuelan political exiles and artificially reduce crime statistics within Venezuela. Gang leaders were instructed to send thousands of members out of the country. This was coordinated through the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Prisons, the National Guard, and national police forces. Tren de Aragua became the most effective and fastest growing.
When the Biden–Harris open-border policy became widely known, they seized the opportunity to send these operatives into the United States. They now have obedient, armed personnel on American soil. To finance their operations, they were explicitly instructed to continue kidnapping, extorting, and killing. Every crime they commit on your soil is an act ordered by the regime.
- Counterintelligence and Espionage Against the United States
I was present when Russian intelligence came to Caracas to propose to Hugo Chávez the tapping of submarine internet cables that connect most of South America and the Caribbean islands with the United States for the purpose of penetrating United States Government communications.
In 2015, I warned Maduro that allowing Russian intelligence to build and run a secret listening post on La Orchila Island would one day invite American bombs. He ignored me.
For twenty years, the Venezuelan regime sent spies into your country—many are still there, some disguised as members of the Venezuelan opposition. Cuban intelligence showed me their networks inside your naval bases on the East Coast. They bragged about having sent thousands of spies over decades, some now career politicians.
U.S. diplomats and CIA officers were paid to assist Chávez and Maduro in remaining in power. These Americans acted as spies for Cuba and Venezuela, and some remain active to this day.
- Smartmatic and Your Elections
Smartmatic was born as an electoral tool of the Venezuelan regime but soon derived into a tool to help keep the regime stay in power forever. I know this because I placed the head of IT of the National Electoral Council (CNE) in his position, and he reported directly to me. The Smartmatic system can be altered—this is a fact. This technology was later exported abroad, including to the United States. Regime operatives maintain relationships with election officials and voting-machine companies inside your country. I do not claim that every election is stolen, but I state with certainty that elections can be rigged with the software – and has been used to do so.
People of the United States, make no mistake about the threat posed by allowing a narco-terrorist organization to roam freely in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America, doing everything possible to harm the American people—to finance anti-Americanism across the continent, and to facilitate the operations of other terrorist organizations and enemies of the United States within Venezuela and now within your borders.
The regime I served is not merely hostile—it is at war with you, using drugs, gangs, espionage, and even your own democratic processes as weapons. President Trump’s policies against the Maduro criminal regime are not just justified, but necessary and proportionate to the threat. He may even be underestimating what the regime is prepared to do to hold onto power. They have contingency plans for every extreme scenario to ensure they never relinquish control.
I absolutely support President Trump’s policy towards Venezuela, because it is in self-defense and he is acting based on the truth. I remain ready to provide additional details about these matters to the United States government.
Hugo Carvajal Barrios
United States of America
December 2, 2025
What Comes Next
Carvajal writes that he is “prepared to provide additional details” to US authorities in any format, including classified briefings.
If federal prosecutors deem his cooperation “substantial assistance,” it could reduce his sentencing exposure. If corroborated, his information could reshape U.S. policy in Venezuela, strengthen ongoing narco-terrorism prosecutions, and shed new light on alleged foreign intelligence operations in the Western Hemisphere.
As the Trump administration increases pressure on Maduro and conducts strikes against suspected trafficking assets, Carvajal’s letter marks an extraordinary moment — a former regime insider openly appealing to an American president he now argues is confronting a criminal state.
Congressional leaders, South American governments, and U.S. intelligence agencies are all expected to monitor the fallout closely.
This is a developing story. The Dallas Express will continue to report updates as they become available.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Emerald Robinson: Don’t want to glide over something you touched on a moment ago. And that was that there are people in US custody – well, one at least in US custody and other people within the United States – who were in the room when the Venezuelan government, Venezuelan government officials, bribed, or we’re told. Or the plans are made to bribe US assets.
Officials, people in the US government, because that is the part of this that we haven’t really touched on. We’ve talked about the drug trafficking, the money laundering the trend. Election officials, but this is a key component of the attack that Venezuelan Cuba has levied on the United States, unbeknownst to most Americans, is the counterintelligence part of this and flipping of many corrupt Americans.
Now, are those people; those kind of people actively blocking Trump’s actions on Venezuela, on the voting machines, ets, etc?
Patrick Byrne: Well, there were there were a number that we did not know about until more recently, and they absolutely were derailing. Absolutely were derailing.
There’s something going to be published, we hope – inshallah – in the next day or so that reveals a whole lot of this, these kinds of matters.
Yeah, there were people blocking him. There are people – I’ve been sworn, I’ve said, “Do not let these names leave your lips, Byrne, until you see certain people arrested.”
I said, “I’m not going to say the names,” but there are people of such seniority who have secretly been on the payroll and when I say like, “We’ve got the proof,” we have a guy who says, “On such-and-such a day. I woke up, Hugo Chávez said, ‘Come on, we’re flying to Havana.’ We flew to Havana. We meet with Fidel Castro. We’re sitting by the pool. Fidel Castro says, ‘I want you to make these payments. And this is the most important guy. He gets $20 million,’ and this and that.
“And so so Hugo turned to me and said, ‘Make sure those payments get done tomorrow.’ So when we flew home the next day, I made sure they were done.
“And by the way, here’s my diaries, where it’s all recorded from that day.”
You know, it’s really tough to argue with that kind of testimony. And so, we know all kinds of people who are paid-off. And I’ve been promised I will not let the names leave my lips. But it’s unbelievable.
And yes, there was active interference. There were still people involved, not only delaying Trump and his greater things, but even what’s been going on regarding Venezuela. Some traitors have been exposed. Some people who were secretly, actually in cahoots with Venezuela.
Emerald Robinson: So let’s talk about that. Can we talk about one such person? Because, I have included this name in my thread, and I’ve been allowed to talk about that and that is Ric Grennell, who has been a Special Envoy during this second term.
According to my sources, Ric Grennell had recently arranged a meeting at Mar-a-Lago with the Batista brothers. These are gentlemen who own a company called JBS in Brazil and they say that they’re the majority – but the majority owners of that company are actually Cartel. Now, this is according to my sources. They’re alleging this.
They also say that Grennell is heavily involved in Serbia; that he was on the contact list of Yorktown Solutions, a lobbying firm, which lists Serbia Chamber of Commerce as its client.
Now, remember, Serbia is where Dominion had the office. Also, Grennell had actively went [sic] to Venezuela and took some action that the President did not sanction and got upset about.
So, is Ric Grennell one of these people of whom you speak?
Patrick Byrne: Ric Grinnell was, I’ll confirm, absolutely not named by these Venezuelans as having received any bribe. I should be clear about that.
Secondly, I have conversed with Ric Grennell in the past. He called me once, won some money. But he was a fine guy. I mean, he was a gentleman. I actually always liked him. And I liked that Trump had an openly gay guy. And I thought that he was actually, in the first term, one of my guys I liked the most. I thought it was good. I thought he was competent.
Yeah, I’ve heard something. So I was mucking around in Eastern Europe, as you know, for some of the last two years. And I’ve heard things about Mr Grennell that deeply trouble me. That deeply trouble me. And I’ve heard them from different parts, from both intelligence service in Eastern Europe and mafiosi in Eastern Europe of a different country. So people know some things about Ric Grennell that trouble me deeply. And I’ve said before, I think he’s compromised. And so, that’s the background on him. But they’re not specifically related, really setting aside Venezuela.
But now, you get to the Venezuela question. I will say there are some people around Donald Trump who have worked very, very hard since President Trump came back into office to convince them that, “Well, let’s bury the hatchet with Venezuela. And whatever Venezuela did and didn’t do to us, well, maybe we can get over it. They’ll give us a gold field. They’ll let us, you know, maybe, hey, you’ve got a big donor who they’ll give an oil field to.”
They’ve been trying that kind of stuff. Well, these people overthrew the United States! It’s the worst attack on the United States in history by a long shot!
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