Leamsy Salazar

Leamsy José Salazar Villafaña is an ex-lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan Navy who was also the head of security details for Hugo Chávez and Diosdado Cabello. Salazar defected to the United States in December 2014 with the assistance of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration providing allegations of Diosdado Cabello heading an organization involved in international drug trade known as the Cartel of the Suns. Salazar was then placed in witness protection, fleeing to the United States with assistance of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Special Operations Division after cooperation with the administration and providing possible details on Cabello's involvement with international drug trade. With information from Salazar, ambassador to the Organization of American States, Guillermo Cochez, stated that Salazar said that Hugo Chávez died at 19:32 on 30 December 2012, contrasting the date Nicolás Maduro stated, which was 5 March 2013. This would be controversial since laws were passed in Chávez's name after the date Salazar stated he was to have died.