2 Colombian males who defended Ukraine were “abducted” by Vladimir Putin in Venezuela and secured in a Russian jail, according to reports.
Alexander Ante, 46 and Jose Aranda, 37, were taken as they travelled through Venezuela’s capital Caracas and extradited to Russia while taking a trip home from Ukraine’s cutting edge, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Ante signed up with Kyiv’s questionable 49th Infantry Battalion Karpatska Sic – with a neo-Nazi history – in 2023, bring into play his experience combating guerrillas in the Colombian army.
By June 2024, he was heading home, however vanished quickly after informing his mom to keep some sancocho (Colombian stew) for him.
After 43 long days of frenzied browsing by his household, Mr Ante came back in a video along with Mr Aranda released by Russia state media channel RT reporting they were being kept in Moscow as penalty.
The set read out their names and the battalion. Foreign soldiers defending Karpatska Sic can make in between $2,400 to ₤ 3,200 a month.
In the video footage, handcuffed and flanked by 2 balaclava-clad guards, Mr Aranda emerges from a cell. Shivering and preventing the video camera’s look, Mr Ante determines himself.
Mr Aranda, who likewise combated in the battalion, sent out a video of himself boarding in Madrid with Alexander, followed hours later on by a place pin from Venezuela’s Caracas Airport.
He had actually prepared to go back to Popayán in time for the weekend to commemorate his 37th birthday. However José Aron never ever showed up, and he never ever got his spouse’s concerned text.
Ever since, neither household has actually handled to call the males or talk to the court-appointed legal representative designated by Russia.
” I’m sick of living. I do not understand what else to do, constantly considering my boy,” Mr Ante’s mom Otilia, informed The Daily Telegraph
” I do not understand if he’s cold, if he’s starving, or how they’re treating him. I understand absolutely nothing. It’s so difficult … In some cases I want I could capture an airplane and leave, however where could I go?”
Venezuela and Russia have actually preserved diplomatic silence. RT claims Russian intelligence caught the males without defining where.
Alexander and José Aron are now serving half a year “on remand”, and deal with a possible 12 to 18 years in jail for “being mercenaries”, according to the Colombian ambassador to Russia Héctor Arenas Neira.