A Venezuelan Military Officer is the Provider of Vehicles and Planes for Evo Morales

 Miguel Ángel Lozano Delgado is a lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB). He resides in the city of La Paz, where he serves as the top executive of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in Bolivia and is the one who provides vehicles and planes to Evo Morales. Lozano is an avid follower of Hugo Chávez and recently authored a book on the late Venezuelan president. Deputy Jairo Guiteras denounced the interference of Venezuelan military personnel, and his colleague Erwin Bazán requested information from the Ministry of Public Works regarding the use of Venezuelan-registered planes by the coca-grower leader.

Lozano Delgado frequently travels between Caracas, La Paz, and Santa Cruz de la Sierra. He is a military officer very close to Nicolás Maduro’s regime and was also close during Hugo Chávez's era. According to Venezuela's Ministry of Popular Power for Defense, his last promotion was in 2016 to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He then requested a leave to take on other duties, including high-ranking roles in PDVSA, despite lacking academic knowledge in hydrocarbons.

This Venezuelan military officer provides the vehicles and planes to Evo Morales so that he can travel across the country by land and fly out of Bolivia to other nations.

Deputy Jairo Guiteras, from Comunidad Ciudadana (CC), believes there is “Venezuelan military interference” in the internal politics of the Movement for Socialism (MAS), noting that Lozano Delgado is still part of the Venezuelan FANB. The opposition legislator announced he would file a complaint with the Public Ministry to initiate an investigation into the matter.

“Upon further investigation, it was found that Miguel Ángel Lozano Delgado, who is the president of PDVSA in Bolivia and owns vehicles used by Morales, is a military officer in Venezuela. Therefore, it confirms that Venezuelan military personnel would be in Bolivia supporting Morales with logistics,” said Guiteras.

Use of PDVSA 

Planes In November 2019, Morales ceased to be president of Bolivia and has since traveled to various countries on planes belonging to the Venezuelan state. He also uses vehicles owned by PDVSA within Bolivia. The coca-grower leader himself admitted that the two vehicles involved in last Sunday’s shootout in the Cochabamba tropics were loaned by the Venezuelan government, a fact known to Luis Arce.

“There was a meeting abroad. Lucho (Arce) was there. Some colleagues from Venezuela, Cuba were there, and, with Lucho’s (Arce) knowledge, Venezuela lends me the two vehicles for security reasons,” Morales stated on Kawsachun Coca radio.

In September, former Minister of Justice Iván Lima revealed that the vehicle Morales used during his march was purchased by PDVSA and later sold at a low price to a 21-year-old woman. Days earlier, the Minister of Government, Eduardo Del Castillo, reported that the young woman, whose mother has a conviction for drug trafficking, was the owner of the vehicle. That vehicle was also registered under military officer Lozano Delgado.

One of Morales's most recent flights on a PDVSA plane was in April of this year. The coca-grower leader traveled to Caracas to attend a meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). He made the trip on a private flight on aircraft YV1118.

This aircraft belongs to PDVSA and is sanctioned by the United States government. In September 2021, the same aircraft with registration YV-1118 picked up Morales at the Cochabamba airport to take him to Venezuela.

Deputy Erwin Bazán, from Creemos, announced that he would request information from the Ministry of Public Works to investigate the use of Venezuelan planes by Evo Morales.

External Resources 

Deputy Jairo Guiteras, from Comunidad Ciudadana (CC), demanded that Evo Morales be suspended as a MAS leader for violating Law 1096 on Political Organizations after confessing that he receives support from Venezuela, as the vehicles he uses belong to an executive of the Venezuelan state oil company.

Legal Status 

Electoral official Tahuichi Tahuichi Quispe stated that if a formal complaint is filed regarding foreign funding in favor of the MAS leader, one of the consequences could be the loss of the party’s legal status. He added that the matter should be investigated by the Public Ministry.