By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) - - A retired Venezuelan general who says he was involved in a plot to oust President Nicolas Maduro has pleaded guilty to U.S. charges of assisting Colombia's FARC rebel group, court records showed on Friday.
Cliver Alcala had been set to go on trial in federal court in Manhattan starting July 10 on charges he and other senior Venezuelan government officials - including Maduro - conspired with the FARC to ship cocaine to the United States.
Alcala pleaded not guilty to those charges shortly after surrendering to U.S. agents in Colombia in 2020. He pleaded guilty earlier this week to two counts of providing material support to a terrorist group and illicit transfer of firearms, court records showed.
"General Alcala accepted an extensively negotiated plea agreement in which he has pled guilty to lesser offenses not contained in the indictment against him – providing material support to the FARC when he was a Venezuelan general. This resolution does not include any narcotics offenses," Alcala's defense team said in a statement.
The United States considered the FARC, which disbanded in 2016 as part of a historic peace deal, to be a terrorist group.
Alcala's lawyers said he supported the FARC as "part of the foreign policy of his country as directed by the civilian government."
Alcala retired from Venezuela's military in 2013 and went on to become a vocal critic of Maduro, a socialist accused by Washington of corruption, human rights violations and election-rigging.
In court papers last October, Alcala said he met with the Central Intelligence Agency multiple times between 2017 and 2020 to discuss a planned revolt aimed at ousting Maduro. His lawyers said his involvement in the plot meant he could not have been conspiring with Maduro to ship cocaine.
The CIA declined to comment at the time.
Maduro dismisses U.S. criticism of his government as a plot to oust him in a coup and take control of the OPEC nation's vast oil reserves.