The Argentine justice
is heading to open a case against the president of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro
for crimes against humanity based on the Rome treaty that considers that this type of crime has international jurisdiction, but it will not be an automatic procedure.
Lawyer Tomas Farini Duggan filed
a complaint against Maduro on Friday and requested his investigative statement
based on the report of the former UN Human Rights Commissioner and former Chilean president, Michele Bachelet, among other evidence.
The complaint fell by draw
to judge Sebastián Casanello and prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita
.
Since Casanello is on vacation until February 1, he is replaced by Sebastián Ramos.
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That same Friday, Pollicita began working on the 13-page complaint, requested the case files and verified that one of the complainants already has about five cases initiated in Venezuela,
judicial sources informed
Clarín .
He also ordered to
certify
if there is any other case against Maduro in the Argentine justice and hopes that on Monday or Tuesday he will have the answer.
Only then would the prosecutor be in a technical position to be able to
draft a request for an investigation to open the case.
It happens that the Treaty of Rome stipulates that the courts of one country can investigate crimes against humanity in another
if they are not already being seriously investigated in another jurisdiction.
Despite the speed that Pollicita put to these previous measures
, it is very difficult for the cause to be launched and Maduro to be called for an investigation before Tuesday
when the VII Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) begins in Buenos Aires. ) convened by President Alberto Fernández.
This summit will be attended by 14 heads of state and Christopher Dodd, as envoy of the President of the United States Joe Biden.
But
Maduro cannot be stopped by his diplomatic privileges.
But once Pollicita makes the investigation request, if Ramos does not do so in the first week of February, Lijo "will
enable
the Argentine jurisdiction for those acts of human rights violations that are not being investigated responsibly in another jurisdiction," they explained. familiar with the courts of Comodoro PY.
That is in terms of the part of the complaint against the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, who has already established jurisprudence that Casanello will surely take.
According to these sources, Lijo "
already has a jurisprudence in the case that he opened against the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega
, also for crimes against humanity."
This case is advancing and to take measures, such as calls for an investigation, the judge awaits responses from the UN and the Nicaraguan Justice before advancing on Ortega.
In addition, Lijo, in response to a request from the North American humanitarian organization Human Rights Watch, did not have the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, for the crime of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, when he visited Buenos Aires for the G20 summit, but
he did enable the Argentine competition to investigate it.
Farini Duggan filed the complaint on behalf of former Juntos por el Cambio deputy Waldo Wolff,
of the organization called The Argentine Forum for Democracy in the Region (FADER)
and of two Venezuelans who were persecuted and tortured.
FADER is made up of Wolff, Elisa Trotta (the ambassador of the Venezuelan opposition in Argentina), Karina Banfi, Daniel Sabsay, Santiago Kovadloff, Graciela Fernández Meijide, Ricardo López Murphy, Jorge Faurie, Maximiliano Ferraro, Jorge Ferronato, Alfredo Cornejo, Diego Guelar , Álvaro De Lamadrid, Paula Bertol, Brian Schapira, Héctor Schamis, Sabrina Ajmechet, and Marcelo Birmajer, among others.
As this route
is not automatic,
the president of the PRO and former Security Minister of Mauricio Macri, Patricia Bullrich,
will send an alert to the DEA on Monday
to activate a possible request from the United States justice system.
She seeks, through this channel, that the Argentine justice system arrest Maduro
for an open drug trafficking case in New York known as the "cause of the suns".
Bullrich announced to
Clarín
that he will send the alert to the DEA and remind that there is
a criminal cooperation treaty between Argentina and the United States
.
It is the same mechanism that was used last year for the federal judge Federico Villena to accept a request for seizure of the North American Justice of the Boeing 747 of the Aerocargo del Sur Transport Company (Emtrasur) and that had been sold by Iran, despite of being on a list of collaborators with international terrorism of the US Department of Justice.
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“If Nicolás Maduro comes to Argentina, he must be immediately arrested for having committed crimes against humanity.
As happened with Pinochet in London
, in 1998. Justice must act to protect the universal validity of human rights”, recalled Bullrich.
Pinochet's arrest in London was ordered by former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, who is currently an ally of Kirchnerism.
The cause of the “suns” – a name derived from the insignia of Venezuelan generals who sent cocaine to
the United States – was promoted by US Attorney General William P. Barr,
US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman of the Southern District of New York, United States Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the Southern District of Florida, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon, and Acting Associate Executive Director Alysa D. Erichs.
When in the future the Argentine Justice accepts the jurisdiction, it can call Maduro for an investigation to testify, but he
enjoys immunity
for being president of a foreign country, which prevents him from being arrested, explained Farini Duggan.
The lawyer told
Clarín
that he will add two witnesses to his case and another plaintiff.
The victims explained how arbitrary arrests, deprivations of liberty and torture were ordered, while they were systematically persecuted for political reasons, forcing them to flee the country for fear of losing their freedom and life, according to the request for inquiry.
The letter adds as evidence the report issued on September 27, 2019 by the independent international Mission designated by the United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch publications, and the refugee crisis, with some 7.1 million Venezuelans. who have fled since 2014.
FADER's request explains that crimes of public action provided for and punished in the Argentine Penal Code are being investigated, which "violate international treaties signed by our country, such
as forced disappearance
(a crime provided for and punished by article 142 ter of the CP, also resulting from the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons and the Rome Statute), torture (article 144 third, 1 of the CP), and aggravated death threats (article 149, 2 “b”, of the CP);
that constitute serious violations of human rights perpetrated with the intervention of the state authorities of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”.
Law 26,200 of Argentina, which implements the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishes that
Argentine courts may exercise jurisdiction over foreign citizens who commit crimes abroad
, provided that this is established in international treaties and conventions. of which Argentina is a part.
Argentina is a party to the Geneva Conventions and Protocols I and II, which oblige Argentina to prosecute or extradite perpetrators of serious violations of the conventions who are in the country's territory.
Former Macri foreign minister and career diplomat, Jorge Faurie, recalled that "Bachelet's report verified the very serious violations of human rights in Venezuela and Maduro is received here without any qualms, along with Díaz Canel and Ortega, two other dictators." Maduro is an ally of Vice President Cristina Kirchner.
On the possible arrest of Maduro, Faurie said that "there would have to be a request from the North American justice, the Argentine justice and here a judge to address the cause" in statements to Dato on Dato from radio Milenium. "The truth is that
there is a possibility of applying a criterion of universal jurisdiction
”, Faurie concluded.
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The Argentine court ordered the arrest of number two of Chavismo who is expected to enter through Jujuy
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Judge Ariel Lijo investigates Daniel Ortega for the violation of human rights in Nicaragua
