Leoner Azuaje Urrea, one of 80 detainees held in Venezuela for his alleged links to corruption crimes, “committed suicide in his place of detention”.

That was reported by the Attorney General of that country, Tarek William Saab, in the afternoon of Thursday, April 20, 2023.

The surprising news came out two days after Leoner Azuaje Urrea was detained by the National Anti-Corruption Police.

What is known about Leoner Azuaje

Azuaje Urrea, a mechanical engineer, was president of the state-owned Cartones de Venezuela (Cartoven), according to what was reported in December 2022 in a video broadcast on their networks.

According to La Patilla, Leoner Azuaje had been a member of the Board of Directors of Cartones de Venezuela since at least mid-2020.

According to the data registered in his Twitter account, he indicated that he received a master’s degree in Management Engineering from Metropolitan University (Unimet).

He presented himself as a planner, university professor and “defender of the ideas of Chávez and Bolívar.”

Since last Tuesday, he has been in the custody of the National Anti-Corruption Police, attached to Sebin, in Caracas, La Patilla said.

The arrest of Leoner Azuaje

On the night of Tuesday, April 18, they reported three new arrests by the National Anti-Corruption Police via the Venezuelan state television station VTV.

Leoner Azuaje Urrea was one of them. He was 38 years old.

The other two were arrested Ysmel Serranoformer executive vice president of PDVSA, and Salem Hassoun Atrachallegedly involved in “the Pdvsa-Cripto plot” (of the oil companies and the supervision National Crypto Assets and Related Activities, Sunacrip).

De Azuaje Urrea did note that he is under investigation for alleged corruption in the state-owned company Cartones de Venezuela.

The footage broadcast on VTV showed Azuaje Urrea dressed in an orange suit on her way to the courtroom set up in the offices of El Helicoide, the headquarters of Venezuela’s intelligence service.

From Alban to Azuaje

In Venezuela, “Azuaje’s suicide” was reminiscent of the death of Councilor Fernando Albán, which took place in 2018.

On that occasion, prosecutor Saab said that “Albán died after jumping from a window on the tenth floor of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Agency (Sebin) building in Caracas, where he was being held,” reported BBC Mundo.

In the case of Leoner Azuaje, the head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) announced on Thursday, April 20, that they had instructed prosecutors 50 and 67 Nacional “to investigate the accidental suicide of Azuaje Urrea in his place of incarceration”.

The MP’s Criminal Unit was tasked with the Scientific Police (Cicpc) “to carry out the technical inspection, the interviews and the autopsy of the law”.