Argentine court orders arrest of Maduro and other Chavistas

The Argentine Justice Department issued this Monday (23) an international arrest and capture order against the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolás Maduro, the number 2 of Chavismo and Minister of Justice, Diosdado Cabello, and more than thirty other high-ranking officials and military personnel of the Venezuelan regime, accused during a long trial of crimes against humanity for participating in the repression against Venezuelans.

According to information released by the Argentine newspaper Clarionthe unanimous decision was taken by judges Mariano Llorens, Pablo Bertuzzi and Leopoldo Bruglia of Chamber I of the Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires, who responded to a formal request made by the prosecution, represented by prosecutors Carlos Stornelli and José Agüero Iturbe, and by the Venezuelan victims who denounced a “systematic plan” of detentions, kidnappings and torture perpetrated by the Maduro regime.

“We note that the testimonies eloquently convey the experiences suffered by those affected — which seem to exhibit a common pattern in state actions — and are reflected in the different reports from international organizations that specifically expose the controversial characteristics of the Venezuelan rule of law, the persecution — kidnappings, torture, murders — of the civilian population and the lack of interest in adapting to democratic rules,” the court stated in its decision, according to information from the Argentine portal. Infobae. “These connotations show that, at this point in the process, the evidence collected is sufficient for the first instance judge to order, without further delay, the summoning of Nicolás Maduro Moros and Diosdado Cabello to give an interrogatory statement,” the decision added.

The judges highlighted that “considering the gravity and transcendence of the facts, but especially that they are reported as having been carried out by the very structure of the Venezuelan State, and that they continue to be perpetrated to this day, in order to avoid hindering the investigation, put an end to the continuation of the criminal plot and prevent future victims from suffering irreparable violations of human rights, it is necessary to order the immediate arrest — via Interpol — of Nicolás Maduro Moros and Diosdado Cabello, for the purpose of extradition to this Argentine Republic.”

According to the Clarionthe victims’ lawyers have already requested that international arrest warrants be presented to Interpol, so that the organization can decide on issuing red notices that facilitate the arrest and eventual extradition of the accused when they are identified in other countries.

The judges of the Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires based their decision on the principle of “universal justice”, which allows any country to prosecute serious crimes against human rights, regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of those involved.

Lawyer Tomás Farini Duggan, from the Argentine Forum for Democracy in the Region (FADER), which also includes Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, and which was one of the driving forces behind the process that culminated in the arrest warrant for Maduro, stated that the arrest warrants against the Venezuelan dictator and his allies are an important tool so that countries that still maintain an ambivalent position on the situation in Venezuela cannot ignore the crimes against humanity committed by the Caracas regime.

“The arrest warrants, for extradition purposes, will serve to ensure that all those nations that, for ideological or economic reasons, still maintain ambivalent positions on what is happening in Venezuela, can no longer ignore the serious crimes against humanity that the government led by Nicolás Maduro Moros perpetrates systematically to generate terror in the civilian population and, thus, perpetuate itself in power,” Duggan said, according to the newspaper. Clarion.