There is no evidence that Edmundo González Urrutia has been linked to death squads in El Salvador
«And they brought in a character who had worked in El Salvador and had been the logistical support for the Venezuelan embassy, for the so-called death squads. They were founded by the CIA with fascist military personnel from the Salvadoran army. This man was second in command at the embassy, in charge of the massacre of the Jesuits, the nuns and many innocent Salvadorans. He was the one they call in Venezuela «the priest killer». A CIA agent, Leopoldo Castillo. Fugitive from Venezuelan justice. It appears in the WikiLeaks documents. The whole story appears.»
Video with statement starting at 1:05:00
The opinion matrix to which Nicolás Maduro has joined seeks to link Edmundo González Urrutia, who served as a diplomat in El Salvador at the time when journalist Leopoldo Castillo served as Venezuelan ambassador, with the death squads (paramilitary extermination groups). The same thing has been commented on in Spain by Pablo Iglesias, in a recent interviewas well as members of Podemos in the Congress of Deputies.
Certainly, Edmundo González Urrutia and Leopoldo Castillo worked together at the Salvadoran embassy, between July 1981 and July 1983. But there is no evidence, complaints or investigations into either of them for having supported the death squads during the civil war in that Central American nation, through financing or logistics, as the government claims. Unlike what Nicolás Maduro claims, WikiLeaks There are no documents on El Salvador that mention Edmundo González or Leopoldo Castillo.
According to research by Fake News Hunters (CFN), there is evidence online, at least since 2004, of attempts by Chavismo to link Castillo to violent events in El Salvador. The use of the nickname “Matacuras” appears on propaganda pages linked to the Venezuelan and Cuban governments, but there are no records of it having been used in El Salvador to refer to the journalist.
«The rumor about the nickname “Matacuras” is related to a report supposedly published by the Reuters agency on January 31, 1990 and signed by a correspondent named “Dan William” (sic.). It attempts to link Castillo with the “Jesuit Massacre” – which occurred when the Venezuelan ambassador in El Salvador was Pedro Emilio Coll, not Castillo – and also with “Operation Centauro,” the name of a false “extermination plan” secretly promoted in El Salvador by the United States government,» explains CFN.
The verification agency points out that “Operation Centaur” is a case of disinformation promoted by the governments of Havana and Moscow, in the middle of the Soviet era, to influence public opinion and destabilize their political adversaries. The CIA itself denied its existence.
In addition, CFN highlights that regarding the 1989 “Jesuit Massacre,” there is a criminal complaint filed by the Center for Justice and Accountability, an institution that identifies and prosecutes human rights criminals around the world, against the former president of El Salvador and commander in chief of the Armed Forces, Alfredo Cristiani Burkard, and 14 other people for their participation in the “Jesuit Massacre.” Leopoldo Castillo and Edmundo González are not among the 15 accused.
On the other hand, the massacre of the Jesuit priests in San Salvador (also known as the UCA martyrs), occurred on November 16, 1989, six years after the presidential candidate finished his stay at the Venezuelan embassy in El Salvador (1983).
It all started after Edmundo González registered as a candidate
On May 15, 2024, just days after it was confirmed that Edmundo González had been registered as an opposition presidential candidate in Venezuela, the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and deputy to the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, disseminated the information based on a communication supposedly sent to him directly by a “Colombian diplomat” warning him about González Urrutia’s alleged dark past during the civil war in El Salvador.
The letter also states that both Castillo and González Urrutia were recruited by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Statement from 3:16:27 a.m. to 3:22:30 a.m.
The letter, written by the supposed cooperating patriot La Gomela, and read by Cabello during the broadcast of the 476th edition of his program With the hammer hittingis a communication that at first glance does not seem to have been written by a diplomat.
I want to read this lady’s letter, because I haven’t even read the letter. Cooperating patriot La Gomela, Mansion la Curuba de Oro, Alto de Las Palmas, Medellín. (…) His Excellency Captain Diosdado Cabello Rondón, present. Ambassador María Catalina Restrepo Pinzón de Londoño writes to you very respectfully (…) This letter from this lady must be posted on the networks so that we know who the character is. The reason for this letter is none other than to inform you about an intriguing and dark episode in the life of Edmundo González Urrutia.
I understand that he graduated in international studies from the Central University of Venezuela, but his bloodthirsty and grovelling diplomatic career has its theoretical foundation in his training, since his curriculum includes a master’s degree completed in the United States at the American University of Washington, between 1978 and 1980, on international relations and American foreign policy.
Edmundo worked in his nation’s international service and on November 24, 1976 he joined the Venezuelan embassy in the United States as an official, in the midst of the Condor plan. There he was recruited by the CIA, as was common at that time (…) That is why on July 27, 1981 he was transferred to the Venezuelan embassy in El Salvador, where he was undoubtedly going to carry out a mission, and so he remained until July 20, 1983.
Distinguished Captain Cabello, do you know who your country’s ambassador was at that time in El Salvador? None other than Leopoldo Castillo, the same journalist who stole a budget (in millions of dollars) that the fictional government of the Republic of Narnia granted him in 2020 to create a parallel Telesur.
As it turns out, González Urrutia, although less well-known than his boss Castillo, played a not inconsiderable role in the Venezuelan embassy in the Central American country during those turbulent 1980s. His arrival in San Salvador coincided with a truly dark era, marked by human rights violations and horrific massacres.
The fact is that under Castillo’s command and with the advice of González Urrutia, the infamous death squads were unleashed. The reports from those days are chilling, from massacres of innocent civilians to the persecution and murder of teachers and community leaders. Not to mention the ruthless attacks against religious people and children. It is worth noting that all of this is documented with horror by media from all over the world.
Edmundo was supremely involved in these atrocities, being an active part of the financing and logistics of these brutal acts (…) Edmundo, although perhaps a secondary player on paper, was a key player in one of the darkest pages of Central American history. It is therefore not surprising that he is currently the candidate chosen by the US government to face the acting president of his country, Nicolás Maduro. He is the worthy representative of imperial sanctions (…).
A Google search for María Catalina Restrepo Pinzón Londoño yielded no results. There were no matches for names and surnames. There is no evidence that such a person, who Cabello says was a Colombian diplomat, exists. EsPaja On May 16, we contacted the Colombian Foreign Ministry to verify whether María Catalina Restrepo Pinzón is or was a Foreign Relations official, but we received no response.
The team of Firefly Check He also asked the Foreign Ministry and until the afternoon of May 23 the answer was that they had not found any record with that name.
The version read by Cabello on May 15 was quickly replicated by pro-government media, without any verification. Latest News, See Diary, FuserNews, Venezuela Newsreported on the alleged “revelation” released by Cabello about the Unity candidate. Firsts-Venezuela went beyond the information disclosed in With the hammer hitting and cites three of the massacres that occurred between 1981 and 1983 in El Salvador.
On May 20, the Instagram account of Redradiove and Fidel Alejandro (Madroñero), former host of Zurda Konducta, published a video based on information provided by Cabello in his program on May 15. The material begins by saying: “the search for a candidate without a criminal record failed again. Edmundo González Urrutia turned out to be a former agent recruited by the CIA in 1976, when he began his diplomatic career.”
A “CIA spy” with a license?
On Tuesday the 21st he arrived at EsPaja An image for verification: An ID card belonging to Edmundo González Urrutia that accredits him as a CIA agent.
An ID with a date of incorporation in January 1980 and an expiration date until the end? There are several things that undermine the credibility of this image just by looking at it. Firstly, the supposed CIA card (Central Intelligence Agency of the United States) is made in Spanish and secondly, “until the end” is not exactly a date, but the campaign slogan of the disqualified Unitarian candidate María Corina Machado, who had to give up her position to González Urrutia and for whom she travels the country carrying the message of Unity.
This card format is available on the Internet. In the search for EsPaja It was found that the design is from Informaníaticos made on the Deviantart platform, a space in which each user shows their art.
The design was published in April 2016 and is the same template used to show González Urrutia as an alleged US intelligence agent. Anyone can upload a photo and make changes to the data.
Edmundo González Urrutia’s CIA agent credentials also feature a QR code, or part of one. But the QR code (Quick Responder) was not created until 1994, 11 years after González Urrutia finished his work at the Venezuelan embassy in El Salvador.
On Wednesday, May 22, in his program 477, Cabello insisted on what he had said in the program of May 15, linking González Urrutia with the death squads, through another letter addressed to him by María Catalina Restrepo and received through a supposed cooperating patriot. In this letter he pointed out that González Urrutia justified the military operations against the Salvadoran peasants.
The next day, when questioned by a journalist about the PSUV deputy’s accusations, Gonzalez Urrutia said of Cabello: “It is a mentality that is fertile for lies and fallacies.” And he added: “I have nothing to do with that. I served in El Salvador for two years, working for democracy. and for the reconstruction of the country.”
EsPaja found no evidence of the allegations made in programs 476 and 477 of With the hammer hitting against González Urrutia. And what’s more, the card that circulated – regarding the “revelation” made on his television show – turned out to be apocryphal.