In a press conference this Wednesday, at the headquarters of the Public Ministry of Venezuela in Caracas, the country’s attorney general, Tarek William Saabreferred to the visit of two of his persecutors to Santiago after the request that Chilean authorities made in the case of the kidnapping and murder of Ronald Ojeda.
The former Venezuelan military man, dissident of the government of Nicolás Maduro, Ronald Leandro Ojeda Moreno escaped from Ramo Verde National Center for Military Prosecutions from Venezuela in November 2017. He arrived in Chile the following year and accepted refugee status in November 2023.
“We are concerned about the political use that has been made of this case. There are also many questions omitted and without answers: Why did Ojeda, who was in Chile as a refugee, leave the country through illegal passages? the prosecutor noted.
It is presumed that Walter Rodríguez and Michael Villegas, two of the alleged perpetrators of the crime, of Venezuelan nationality, escaped to their country of origin. That is why Chile requested support from the Caracas government for its location. The prosecutor Hector Barroscoordinator in the Metropolitan Region of the Organized Crime and Homicide Team (ECOH) of the Public Ministry, maintains that the crime “was organized from Venezuela” and points to a political motivation as the line of investigation that they have not been able to rule out.
Tarek William Saab affirmed that his country has collaborated with the investigation and criticized the position of the Chilean National Prosecutor’s Office of not providing details of the investigation to its emissaries who visited Santiago last week, Ángel Fuenmayor, general director against Common Crimes, and Álvaro Cabrera , director of International Affairs of the Public Ministry of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Likewise, Tarek William Saab stated that the ““pole-jumping” of the National Prosecutor’s Office led the Chilean government “to give unfounded statements” for the case.
“In view of the seriousness of the events that occurred and the participation in them of alleged Venezuelans, we proceeded to open our own investigation to facilitate the collection of the information requested by Chile. And to begin the investigations that allow us to find the alleged co-authors of the incident,” he said.
Likewise, he indicated that they have sent “a request for mutual criminal assistance requiring key data to advance in locating those involved who have been identified.”
Furthermore, the authority of the Venezuelan persecuting body ruled out that Walter Rodríguez and Michael Villegas, If they are detained in their territory, they can be extradited to Chile due to an express constitutional prohibition.
“If they are detained in Venezuela, they will be tried here based on the evidence collected by the Chilean Prosecutor’s Office; who didn’t deliver anything”he commented.
“We consider that Ojeda’s murder is a false flag operation. An operation that had the objective of clouding relations between Chile and Venezuela, just when a very important rapprochement was taking place. What a coincidence,” he stated, ensuring that in that supposed operation “Chilean intelligence bodies and foreigners with spurious interests may have participated.”
Along these lines, he stated that “Indeed, the motive is political, but it is not the one that has been discussed in the Chilean media and that the Chilean prosecutor’s office has not wanted to deny or corroborate.”
“We know that there are people involved in all stages of the incident who have not been able to be identified and who may belong to intelligence organizations from third countries,” the prosecutor assured.
The early morning of Wednesday, February 21 Ronald Ojeda was taken from his home, on the 14th floor of a building in Independencia, by subjects who They burst in, characterized as officials from the Investigative Police. Friday March 1 His body was found in a suitcase, buried under cement, in a 1.4 meter deep pit inside a land occupation in Maipú. He was 32 years old and had a six-year-old son.
There are three suspects who have been identified and are linked to the crime. A 17-year-old teenager who was temporarily detained after the formalization of him and two other subjects for whom an arrest warrant was issued and who would be in Venezuela.
