Africa-Press – Angola. General Higino Carneiro (HC) is under fire, on the one hand, facing accusations about an alleged meeting with the leader of UNITA, Adalberto Costa Júnior (ACJ), for an alleged political agreement and, on the other hand, he saw his name associated with a citizen of North American nationality, Dale Bendler, a former CIA officer, placing him in acts of conspiracy and espionage, allegedly supported by financial compensation.
By Lito Dias
HC has already responded, considering that such “insinuations, completely devoid of truth” and are added to others previously launched, including the “known allusions to the so-called toys”.
In the first accusation made by an internet user who, repeatedly, shows himself to be not very distant from UNITA, he reports that ACJ, desperate with the upcoming congress of his party, met, in an emergency, with General Higino Lopes Carneiro, at the Victória Garden Hotel, in Luanda, aiming to reinforce and deepen an already existing pact of mutual support…
In the second, which was continued by Angolan Public Television, it is said that a former CIA officer, Dale Bendler, confessed at trial to providing illegal services to Higino Carneiro. For this reason, he could be sentenced to 24 months in prison for violating American laws.
According to the same report, Dale Bendler, a former CIA paramilitary officer in Angola and former station chief in Paris, pleaded guilty, according to a statement published on the United States Department of Justice website. The case is being tried in the Eastern District of Virginia, where prosecutors are seeking only 24 months in prison.
It states that between July 2017 and September 2020, the period during which he worked as a full-time contractor at the CIA, Bendler had daily access to highly sensitive documents, which the prosecution claims he used for personal benefit.
He reportedly received approximately $360,000 in private fees to act on behalf of foreign interests. Records presented by Bendler himself reveal that the main foreigner he worked for was Angola, specifically the former governor of Luanda province, Higino Carneiro.
This is how at least $20,000 a month was paid to the former CIA officer to organize public relations campaigns to defend Higino Carneiro from accusations of embezzlement and to lobby US and international authorities.
Documents also mention political support for a potential presidential candidacy by Higino Carneiro. The ties to Angola began to be revealed in May 2025 by national security journalists, following statements made by Bendler himself in an interview with Tim House’s podcast in March 2024. If the allegations are proven, the source says, Higino Carneiro will also have to answer to the US justice system.
“Accusations lack factual support”
In a press release, the FAA Army General’s advisory team on the reform says that in recent times, apocryphal texts have been circulating in some media outlets and on social media, devoid of any basis, whose sole purpose is to “attack the honor, weaken the public image and undermine the credibility of citizen Higino Carneiro, who recently made public his decision to run for the leadership of the MPLA.”
Regarding HC’s alleged involvement in acts of conspiracy and espionage, allegedly supported by financial compensation, he vehemently emphasizes that such accusations are completely false, lacking any factual support, and lacking the slightest evidence to substantiate them. “It should also be noted that only someone unfamiliar with the workings of the American secret services could naively insinuate that a CIA agent could be considered corrupt,” the note reads.
Regarding the alleged meeting with the UNITA leader, although denied, he clarifies that, as a politician willing to lead Angola’s largest party—a party with historical and state responsibilities—Higino Carneiro does not rule out the possibility of patriotic meetings, provided they serve the nation’s best interests and contribute to safeguarding national unity. Furthermore, the location and circumstances of the aforementioned meeting are completely incompatible with his agenda.
“It is public knowledge and easily verifiable that, at the time of the aforementioned events, the politician was on a mission in the interior of the country, a fact that, in itself, dismantles this defamatory narrative,” he confirms.
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