The Venezuelan judiciary has issued a new arrest warrant for the mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma and will start a process to ask Spain again, where he has been in exile since 2017, his extradition, the attorney general said Monday, Tarek William Saab. “We have (…) applied for an arrest warrant against Antonio Ledezma, which was agreed, for the crimes of treason, conspiracy, incitement to commit a crime and association to commit a crime,” he told reporters.
He explained that this new arrest warrant against the mayor, who fled Venezuela in 2017, Violation of house arrest he had on conspiracy charges stems from recent statements in which he spoke of plans for “civil disobedience” in the country.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, these are “serious statements” in which Ledezma “reaffirms that”. A civilian insurgency backed by a military insurgency is brewing in Venezuela.”
“Once again, the Public Ministry (Public Prosecutor’s Office) is carrying out the procedures to request that Spain end the extradition of this person to Venezuela (…) we hope that this time, yes, that the Kingdom of Spain, the Spanish Government and … “Your authorities are stopping the extradition of people like this, who cares about the Venezuelan family and the peace of Venezuelans,” he said.
Deliveries from Spain to Venezuela were frustrated by the national court, that he distrusts the way these people are treated when they return to their country.
However, the Spanish judiciary has launched an investigation into the former mayor and other Venezuelans over alleged money laundering stolen from Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.
End of July, Ledezma was summoned before the Spanish Public Prosecutor’s Office to testify as a “victim”. – As he explained – following an investigation by the International Criminal Court into alleged commissions of crimes against humanity in Venezuela, which includes an investigation into abuses in criminal proceedings.
Ledezma relies on this in statements to Europa Press “No democratic government is willing to process extradition orders that are completely arbitrary.” In this sense, he recalled that it was not the first time that he had received allegations of this nature: “I have not been silent and neither will they be silent about me.” “They never tire of harassing and stalking me ‘ he denounced, reviewing the measures taken against him in his successive political posts in Venezuela and also ‘now in exile’. Ledezma has pointed out that in the South American country “with fear and paralyzed by fear” it is not possible “to conquer the future”.