El Pollo Carvajal manages to paralyze his extradition to the United States by appealing to the Strasbourg Court

El Pollo Carvajal manages to paralyze his extradition to the United States by appealing to the Strasbourg Court



The National High Court (AN) has agreed to keep the extradition of former Venezuelan Intelligence chief Hugo 'El Pollo' Carvajal suspended to the United States, which claims him for alleged drug and arms trafficking crimes, due to a precautionary measure issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

"Given account, by received communication from the European Court of Human Rights on the day of the date, it is agreed to suspend the execution of the extradition order of the claimed Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios by virtue of article 39 of its Regulations", reads the decision of the Criminal Chamber.

The ECHR has agreed to this precautionary measure in response to an appeal filed by the defense of the Venezuelan general, whose delivery to Washington was already paralyzed in any case since last December.

On that occasion, the Criminal Chamber stopped the extradition pending the resolution of the second request for asylum made by 'El Pollo', which has finally been denied by the Ministry of the Interior but which can still be appealed in that way.

The legal sources consulted by Europa Press explain that, although the Interior denied the eventual appeal of 'El Pollo', thus confirming the 'no' to his second request for asylum, the extradition could not be reactivated due to this precautionary measure adopted by the ECHR.

Spain agreed to hand him over two years ago

The former head of Military Counterintelligence with Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro is persecuted in Washington for events that occurred between 1999 and 2019, when he would have belonged to the so-called 'Cartel of the Suns', a criminal organization supposedly managed by 'Chavista' charges that, with the presumed collaboration of the FARC and other armed groups, he would have introduced large amounts of drugs into the United States.

'El Pollo' has been in the hands of the Spanish authorities since last September 9, when he was arrested by the National Police, during a joint operation with the US DEA, in a Madrid apartment where he lived "totally cloistered", as reported at the time. the security body.

His capture reactivated the extradition process to the United States, which was approved in 2020 but had not been able to materialize because Carvajal fled in November 2019, although his defense emphasizes that he never left Spain.

Two asylum requests

Before his escape, Carvajal requested a first asylum claiming that he was the victim of political persecution because the US authorities placed him within Maduro's circle of trust.

This initial request was denied in 2019, but he did not have formal knowledge of it until last September. So, he reacted by trying to get Interior to reverse his decision, without success.

Carvajal launched a second request for asylum, highlighting the "collaboration process" with the Spanish Justice that began after being captured and that has led to the reopening of a case on the alleged illegal financing of Podemos that was filed in 2016.

The department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska has recently rejected the second asylum, although this administrative decision is subject to appeal before the Ministry of the Interior.

In the absence of the actions that Carvajal's defense can take against this second denial, which according to the sources consulted by this news agency are already being assessed, the Venezuelan general still hopes that the AN resolves the contentious-administrative appeal for the rejection of the first asylum.

The Criminal Chamber, which, counting on the latter, has already paralyzed Carvajal's extradition up to four times, accused 'El Pollo' of using these demands for international protection to delay his trip to the North American power.



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