Operation Aurora, Analysis
Operation Aurora only became known on December 22 after successfully raiding the Luepa base in Bolivar state, but the 2 leaders had been planning this for years.
After Operation Aurora conducted their first attack, a successful raid on Luepa and a failed raid on Escamoto base in Bolivar State, it was a week before those behind the attack released a statement.
In a video uploaded online Josue Hidalgo Azuajeis and Franklin Caldera and Russo Cardenas are crouched in a field near the Brazilian border where they announce operation Aurora and its aims to liberate Venezuela and seek revenge for the crimes committed against the indigenous Pemones in Bolivar State.
This was the first look at those behind the operation.
The next video was uploaded on the 10th January and was a more powerful than the first one. 5 armed soldiers sat as Jose Rodriguez Araya further speaks about why they are going forward with operation Aurora, the international communities failure to deal with the crisis and the Venezuelan refugee crisis are mentioned as reasons. An interesting observation is that this is the first time we get to see the uniform of Operation Aurora. They have their own military insignia, their insignia is the badge of the Fuerza Armada Patriota de Venezuela (FAPV).
The use of their own insignia and uniforms were the first indication this was a well planned operation and not like the uprisings we’ve seen in the past couple of years where small groups of active duty soldiers conduct unplanned attempted operations.
It wasn’t long before the next video was released, on the 11th January a behind the scenes video was uploaded by an unknown soldier showing a group of 5 armed operation Aurora soldiers in a field (so far none of these soldiers have been identified.)
So far these are the only videos uploaded by Operation Aurora. A couple of photos were uploaded from Jose Rodriguez Araya from during the raid on Luepa which shows soldiers being detained by Operation Aurora and 1 photo shows Araya in his disguise used to enter the base, he has a DGCIM (military intelligence) badge on. This is likely how he managed to get inside the base without raising suspicions
1 member of operation Aurora was captured by the Venezuelan military during the raid after being ambushed by soldiers, although the exact circumstances behind his capture are still unknown. The member captured was Darwin Balaguera, a former Venezuelan Army soldier who deserted Venezuela and fled to Cúcuta on February 23 during the humanitarian aid crisis at the border.
5 active duty soldiers from Luepa base were in on the raid and helped operation Aurora but something happened between them and Balaguera which led to Balaguera being captured and the 5 soldiers fled to Brazil where they have now claimed asylum.
So far that’s all the images and videos we have of Operation Aurora, but more information is available about the 2 men leading the Operation, Josue Hidalgo Azuaje and Jose Rodriguez Araña.
Both these men are highly trained soldiers who were arrested in 2017 after joining the La Espada De Dios movement which aimed to stage a rebellion to remove Maduro from power. Both men were detained and tortured at the infamous Ramo Verde máximum security military prison. Rodriguez Araña was transferred to a lower security prison where he escaped in October 2017.
On the 30 November 2017 while being moved from a hearing back to Ramo Verde Jose Rodríguez Araya helped his fellow La Espada de Dios soldiers escape with the help of a number of on duty National Guard soldiers who were escorting the prisoners. One of those that escaped that day was Josue Hidalgo Azuaje.
Both the men fled to Peru after their escape were they were quiet until January 17 2019. When they released this video surrounded by 20 or so former Venezuelan soldiers and policemen.
In the video Hidalgo speaks and he urges more Venezuelan soldiers to desert and remove Maduro from power. Hidalgo says that they have the support of thousands of Venezuelan soldiers in the video.
Rodriguez is seen next to Hidalgo in this video from January 17, 2019
Hidalgo also gave a TV interview to CNN in January 2019. He says at the time they are working towards a military rebellion “a really big one, one that can be decisive”
While not much information is still known about Operation Aurora, it has been planned for a long time by Hidalgo and Rodriguez, over a year, they are well equipped with their own uniforms and weaponry stolen from Luepa. While the size of the operation is not yet known, (we have only seen 15 soldiers so far) we can speculate that the group could consist of more soldiers than just those shown. Hidalgo wouldn’t start an operation he knows will fail, he made that clear in his interview and speech last year.
Update: After some additional research over the past couple of days, I can confirm that not all of the operation Aurora members are in Venezuela anymore, it’s unclear what their future plans are or how many are left inside Bolivar State.