The Diplomat
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Wednesday that he will ask Spain’s new foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, to extradite Venezuelan opposition politician Leopoldo López, who is in Spain after fleeing the country.
In a ceremony broadcast on state-run VTV channel, Maduro said: “I have told Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza to communicate with the newly appointed foreign minister, Foreign Minister Albares, and show him all the evidence and ask him to extradite Mr Leopoldo López, the main sponsor of coups d’état, terrorist violence and now this criminal violence.
The Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) had already reported last May that it had requested the extradition of López to Spain, indicating that he must serve a sentence of “eight years, six months, 25 days and 12 hours” for the crimes of “being an instigator in the crime of arson, an instigator in the crime of damage, author of the crime of public instigation and association”.
According to Maduro, the prosecutor’s office “has found that a large part” of the shootings between gangs and police in Caracas last week “were prepared in advance, financed and directed by telematic means from Madrid”.
“Terrorist attacks with criminal groups in Venezuela are directed from Madrid and the Spanish government should know it”, he stressed.
“We are going to request the extradition (of López) and make sure that the Spanish government respects international law and is not complicit in terrorism and violence against the peace of Venezuelans,” he added.
Finally, he said that he could have “many differences with the Spanish government”, but “it is another thing for them to protect the fact that, from Madrid, actions of violence, death and terrorism, which have been proven, are led and financed directly”.
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