Life became hell for Denny Yerimar Carrasquel Gonzalez on the night of April 29, 2023. Guerrillas from the José Daniel Pérez Carrero Front, from the ELN, arrived at the Cacique mine in the Venezuelan state of Amazonas, and without asking, took him to an undisclosed location.
The reason why Deni Yerimar was abducted is unknown, what is known is that the man who ordered her to be taken by force is a guerrilla commander who offered the Amazonas kingdom its forts and gold mines as resources. The fund they report to the ELN is, according to Military Intelligence, between 900 and one billion pesos per month.
The name of the guerrilla everyone fears is Wilmer Albeiro Galindo, but in the gold mines he is known as “Alex Bonito”. According to military intelligence sources, he is the commander of the José Daniel Pérez Carrero Front, and has fought alongside FARC dissidents, “whom he displaced at the point of bullets and tactics in this Venezuelan minefield”.
Extortion
The miners say that the power of “Alex Bonito” is so great in this part of the Venezuelan mining arc that he himself runs the mines of the Cano Bravo area, where he has the greatest influence and “controls the entire mining area of Yancuana”. is located in”.
Mine workers say that “Alex Bonito” and his guerrilla group are in charge of extortion at the bottom of the tunnels, and that sometimes, when the miners have nothing to pay, “they charge him with sacks of gold.” give what he weighs and deduct from the pending payment”.
Abduction
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the alias “Alex Bonito” kidnapped Denny Yerimar. Since the ELN extorts money for every movement made in the area, they demanded a fee from the woman for the sale of some motorcycles, a source told the Frontera Viva media outlet.
“The girl and her husband went to Yapacana to sell some motorcycles to the cacique mine, which is at the entrance to the mines. With the joke that the Alanos applied because they have to pay for everything, they were charging the girl a tax to pass the motorcycle; She said she couldn’t. The Alanos told him they knew he had collected gold that belonged to an army soldier,” said an official at the Legislative Council of Amazonas, where Yarimar worked.
A day later, ELN guerrillas captured Rafael José Brito, a passionate accomplice of Denny Yerimar. Today, 16 days after the abduction, the whereabouts of the two remain a mystery, but the buzz among the miners is that the man abducted in the mines has been murdered and buried in the area, and They fear this is what happened to Denny. her husband.
Their influence in the region
The ELN Front, led by “Alex Bonito”, is gaining ground among the inhabitants of Arco Minero not only because of its violent actions, but also because of its speeches and the apparent good works it does in those areas.
Information gathered by police and military investigators suggests that as part of the strategy, “Alex Bonito” distributes markets and settles lawsuits.
It has also recruited Venezuelan citizens into its ranks, as was evident on 20 November when six guerrillas were captured, five of them of Venezuelan origin, who according to police, engaged in extortion on the Colombian-Venezuelan border took place and raised $60 million. Monthly.
Complaints followed the capture, and one of them, according to Colombian police, was from a boat owner who claimed he had been abducted. “The subject, aka Alex Bonito, calls them to negotiate the payment of a support fee for that criminal organization. The transporters must reach the border, but there they are abducted and physically held for several days. and subjected to psychological abuse, threatened with death if his family does not pay 100 million pesos for his release,” Colombian police reported.
