- The Venezuelan attorney general indicated that two special prosecutors from the Public Ministry are making efforts to charge the foreign president for alleged human rights violations.
The Attorney General of Nicolás Maduro’s government, Tarek William Saab, announced on September 18 that he had opened an investigation from Venezuela against Argentine President Javier Milei. In a press conference, he said that he would appeal to international justice mechanisms to request an arrest warrant against the president.
Showing videos of riots at demonstrations in Buenos Aires, he indicated that two prosecutors from the Venezuelan Public Ministry are currently making efforts to open a case against Milei and the country’s Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, for alleged human rights violations. He also appointed two other prosecutors to carry out a separate investigation into the seizure of a Venezuelan plane in Argentine territory in 2022.
“The Public Prosecutor’s Office considers that we could be in the presence of serious violations of human rights that could constitute crimes against humanity, so inspired by the principle of universal justice and the catalogues of human rights provided for in international law, we have decided to appoint a prosecutor specialized in the protection of human rights to carry out the investigations,” he said.
The Emtrasur plane
One of the facts with which the prosecutor justified his investigation against Milei was the case of the plane of the Aerocargo del Sur Transport Company (Emtrasur) confiscated by the Argentine government in 2022. Although the ship was detained during the government of leftist Alberto Fernández, Saab referred to its confiscation by the United States and its shipment to that country in January 2024, already during the Milei Administration, to then be dismantled.
In response, Saab indicated that he will appeal to Article 15 of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. This establishes that a State can adopt measures to exercise its jurisdiction with respect to crimes that occur on an aircraft registered by that country, as well as against one of its nationals, in this case the crew of the plane that They were held for several months in Argentina.
The case was considered a theft of property belonging to the subsidiary of the state-owned company Conviasa, as well as the kidnapping of its 15 crew members, nine of whom were Iranian nationals. It was classified as aggravated robbery, money laundering, unlawful deprivation of liberty, simulation of a punishable act, unlawful interference, disabling of aircraft and criminal association. All of these belong to Venezuelan laws.
Saab then appointed two prosecutors to investigate the case. In addition to the Argentine president and Minister Bullrich, he announced that the Argentine presidential secretary general, Karina Milei, would be charged.
“What I am expressing here will have its consequences in the next few hours in a competent court in Venezuela, with the respective arrest warrants before the competent agencies,” he added.
Human rights violations
The second case for which the Venezuelan Public Prosecutor’s Office plans to charge President Milei is for alleged crimes against humanity committed against the Argentine people. “He has applied a fierce policy of repression against social protest, with police attacks on peaceful demonstrations by young people and the elderly, arbitrary arrests, torture and mistreatment of detainees,” he said.
As evidence, he showed videos of clashes between protesters and police in Buenos Aires that occurred days ago during protests against Milei’s veto of the pension law reform that had been approved by Congress. The videos show the use of riot gear, tear gas and water cannons (whales).
“So let’s see what the world says about this. What does the International Criminal Court say, what does the UN say, what do the international human rights NGOs say? Absolutely nothing. So it’s a double standard when it comes to human rights,” he said.
He indicated that he will use the principle of universal jurisdiction provided for by international law, which allows institutions of a State to judge certain crimes based on the nature of the act, regardless of the territory in which it was committed or the nationality of the perpetrator. This principle, supported by the United Nations, is curiously also applied at this time by the Argentine justice system to criminally investigate Nicolás Maduro for crimes against humanity since 2019.
Against interference
Minutes before announcing the investigation against Milei, Saab gave a speech in which he spoke out against the interference of other countries, and specifically Argentina, in the internal affairs of Venezuela. He said that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights defenders act as “paid agents” who give a platform to international organizations to speak out against the Maduro government.
“With what morality does the government of Milei, a neo-Nazi fascist, speak? He himself does not know what he is. One day he wakes up and pretends to be a human beast, another day he appears with a wig and says he does not know what sexual identity he has. Another day he grabs and says he is the hero of planetary liberalism and another day he grabs and sends some bloodhounds to offend the Venezuelan democratic institutions,” he said.
He also referred to the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, sent by the United Nations (UN). He stated that their permit to be in the country expired five years ago, so they should not express their opinion on the Venezuelan humanitarian situation. “They are paid 5 million dollars to talk and rehash what they find on social media and attack Venezuela,” he added.
This comes a day after the Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela published a new report which details the torture and crimes against humanity committed by the Maduro government in the context of the post-election protests. This is in addition to an intensification of repression and political persecution aimed at “crushing all peaceful opposition to his rule.”
Other signs
During his speech, Saab said that Milei’s government receives direct orders from the Atlas Network, a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes the development of the free market economy in the world. He compared Milei’s “Chainsaw Plan” with the dismemberments carried out by paramilitaries in Colombia.
He rejected the Argentine economic policies based on budget cuts and funding for universities, closing state institutions and increasing public services. He also accused Milei of reducing support for organizations responsible for preserving the historical memory of crimes committed by the Argentine military dictatorship.
You clearly claim to be the most ferocious dictatorships in your country in the 1970s and 1980s, and you adhere to all these barbaric actions obviously to ingratiate yourself with international Zionism and with both American and British imperialism,” he said.
He also accused the Argentine government of “renouncing its sovereignty” and handing over the Malvinas Islands to the United Kingdom, as well as allowing the construction of a US naval base on its territory. For this reason, he called Milei “a brutal danger for the entire hemisphere.”
Related news
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘648851442656403’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
#Tarek #William #Saab #request #arrest #warrant #President #Javier #Milei #details
2024-09-19 07:47:15
