2024-05-03 17:34:00
(Cnn in Spanish) — The Attorney General of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, requested this Thursday an arrest and extradition order once morest Leopoldo López and Julio Borgesboth opponents and exiles, for supposedly having received benefits of more than US$ 1,000 million.
Saab showed a video during a press conference showing businessman Samark López, who is imprisoned and accused of collaborating with the also detained Tareck El Aissami, the former president of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and allegedly involved in a corruption network known as PDVSA-crypto.
In the video, the businessman says that two Venezuelan contractors involved in the alleged corruption plot “have a close connection” with López and Borges.
CNN has not been able to verify how and on what date the recording was made and contacted the Prosecutor’s Office for more details. The Venezuelan Public Ministry usually presents video testimonies in cases of high political sensitivity.
CNN is also trying to contact Samark López’s lawyer to find out his position on the video published by the Venezuelan authorities and the accusations once morest the businessman.
The Prosecutor’s Office reported the arrest of Samark López on April 12, when he was presented as detained along with Tareck El Aissami, former president of Petróleos de Venezuela and Simón Zerpa, former president of the National Development Fund (Fonden).
Leopoldo López, co-founder of the Primero Justicia party, was arrested in 2014 amid a wave of protests once morest the government of Nicolás Maduro, in which 43 people died, and was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison in 2015.
He was found guilty of the crimes of public instigation, criminal association and determining damages and arson, in a judicial process that was questioned by the defense and several international organizations. He pleaded not guilty to the accusations.
In 2017, Venezuelan authorities allowed him to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest, but in 2019 he abandoned his residence when he attempted a civil-military uprising with opposition leader Juan Guaidó. Later, López requested refuge in the Spanish embassy in Caracas and moved to Madrid in 2020, where he currently lives.
In the case of opposition leader Julio Borges, who was coordinator of the Primero Justicia party, the Venezuelan Attorney General’s Office issued an arrest warrant in 2023 for alleged treason, conspiracy and association for his alleged participation in an attempted military uprising in April 2019, although he already had two previous arrest warrants for alleged corruption and for the planning and financing of an alleged assassination attempt once morest President Maduro in August 2018. Colombia granted him political asylum in 2018. Borges currently lives in Spain.
CNN is trying to contact the legal representatives of Borges and López to find out their reaction to these new accusations.
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