«The appointment of the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice is as vitiated as the appointment of the express magistrates of the year 2015. That shows the contempt that the madurista autocracy has towards the Constitution and the laws. The only thing that matters to them is to avoid being judged and stay in power. This was stated by Luisa Ortega Díaz, former Attorney General of the Republicin conversation with The National from Spain, a country where he hopes to be granted political asylum.
Ortega Díaz also explained that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court takes note of what happens. He pointed out that, in his opinion, if the institutions do not work properly, it will affect other countries. For this reason, he warned against attempts to use institutions from other countries against dissidence against madurismo.
The former prosecutor assured that she now faces a complaint in Colombia for a case she investigated as attorney general. «It is happening that the local Prosecutor’s Office 127 of Bogotá intends to initiate an investigation against me supposedly for having slandered a person named Ricardo Morón. This person is the owner of a company called Constructora Cresmo. He denounced me in Colombia because I supposedly informed Venezuelans and the world that the owners of that company, Iris Varela and the son of Nicolás Maduro, were being investigated by the Venezuelan Public Ministry under my charge, “said Ortega Díaz.
«He denounces me for having said that this company was the one that Iris Varela designated by finger to build a penitentiary center. And they gave Iris Varela 45 million dollars for that work,” she added.
He indicated that the work was not built «and the money was not returned either, so the Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office, fulfilling a constitutional mandate, opened an investigation in 2016. After my hasty departure in 2017, it could not continue. But, at that time, the Judicial Power and the Executive Power put up all the obstacles so that the Public Ministry did not investigate that.
Luisa Ortega Díaz alerts the international community
Despite the situation, Ortega Díaz says he trusts Colombian institutions and those of other countries. “I don’t know if the Colombian authorities are aware of this situation, but it is certainly something that should concern not only that country. Ricardo Morón is a Venezuelan who does not even live in Colombia but lives in Venezuela, claims that his honor has been sullied in Colombia, but I wonder: what happens to life, personal integrity, dignity, honor and reputation of two million Venezuelans who as a result of these acts of corruption are in extreme poverty and with great pain and suffering were forced to go to Colombia.
“The countries of the world must be very alert about the pretensions of those who claim to be in authority in Venezuela because they can send interposed people to denounce anyone. That can be a consistent practice », he warned.
Similarly, Ortega Díaz stressed that he held the position as attorney general until December 31, 2021 and not in 2017 when Maduro’s National Constituent Assembly appointed Tareck William Saab, after he had to go into exile. “What Maduro and those who hold power in Venezuela say cannot be believed. They lie. You only have to see what they did with the Supreme Court of Justice, the appointment of the magistrates. Many of those magistrates do not have the qualifications to be magistrates. They break the law. Article 74 of the Organic Law of the Supreme Court of Justice clearly states that it is a single period of 12 years when they are being elected for another period, it does not matter if they have been there for 5, 6, 10 or 12 years, but it is clear the law. That has no interpretation. But there are magistrates who are now going to have two periods, how do you understand that? They accommodate the laws to their convenience », he pointed out.
investigations during his management: the Pernalete case
He recalled the case of Juan Pablo Pernalete, who at a press conference stated that he had died from the impact of a tear gas canister fired by a National Guard. «For that case they persecuted me and said that the boy was a terrorist. Ernesto Villegas came out saying that he had been killed by a bolt gun fired by a colleague. I came out to say that that was a lie. And they attacked me, and then they ended up saying what I had said. So, it is a lie that the Public Ministry in my charge did not investigate, they were an obstacle to that investigation, “he assured.
Similar, he says, is what happened with the People’s Liberation Operations (known as OLP): “They protected the police. I inaugurated the Criminalistics unit to have experts to carry out the scientific tests and not the experts from the Cicpc because it depends directly on the Executive. What did Tarek William do: he dismantled it. Recently the foreign minister sent a letter to the International Criminal Court, an insolent letter, which says that we have a laboratory in the Criminalistics unit against the violation of fundamental rights so that the expertise can be carried out by impartial experts.
Finally, he indicated that despite the attempts of the Maduro government to establish those responsible and prevent the investigation of the International Criminal Court from advancing, the process will continue. “They can’t do anything because the International Criminal Court is a serious institution. What happens is that they are used to manipulating all the institutions in Venezuela, that they all do what they want: they put the magistrates they want, who are not there for merit, but for this loyalty, fidelity and family relationship. The Criminal Court is not like that. It is a serious institution with responsible people », he assured.