Spain reactivates the extradition process to the United States of Hugo ‘el Pollo’ Carvajal, former head of espionage for Chavismo

The Spanish justice rejected this Friday a last resort of the former Venezuelan intelligence officer Hugo the chicken Carvajal and returned to make his extradition to the United States ready for execution, which is looking for him for drug trafficking.

With this latest decision, “there is no obstacle or any pending appeal that would paralyze the delivery” of Carvajal to the US authorities, he explained to AFP a spokesman for the National Court, who however could not specify when it will take place.

In this way, the judicial saga in Spain of the head of the Venezuelan intelligence services under the presidency of the late Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), detained in April 2019 at the request of the United States, seems to be drawing to a close.

The judicial battle has included numerous resources from Carvajal to avoid being extradited, and even his escape, since he was a fugitive for more than twenty months since the National Court, the court that decides on these matters, initially approved his extradition in November 2019.

In his flight, the 61-year-old retired general underwent cosmetic surgery, wore mustaches and false wigs, and changed addresses every three monthsAccording to the police, who arrested him again in Madrid last September.

The last judicial turn occurred in October, when the National Court suspended Carvajal’s extradition after an appeal by his defense in which he alleged that his client could be sentenced to life imprisonment, something not provided for in Spanish law, putting into question the feasibility of its delivery.

But the court considered this Friday “sufficient” the guarantee offered by the United States that an eventual life imprisonment would not be “an inhuman penalty”, since in practice “it is not unfailingly for life” as it can be revised “by way of appeal or by way of grace measure”.

The decision is not subject to appeal, recalled the ruling of the National Court, so the extradition received the green light again.

For many years, a leading figure in the Chavista regime, Carvajal is accused by the United States of having belonged to a drug cartel along with other high officials who trafficked drugs with the former Colombian guerrilla of the FARC.

Carvajal, who fled by sea from Venezuela after in February 2019 he recognized the opposition Juan Guaidó as president and not Nicolás Maduro, has remained active on social networks where he has always denied the accusations against him.

Meanwhile, this same Friday it was known that the Election observers from the European Union were expelled from Venezuela days before their scheduled departure, in the midst of a repression by the regime of Mature after the elections on November 21.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to extend their visas, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation, collects Infobae

The group had planned to be in the country until December 13But tensions began to build in the run-up to the elections when Maduro dismissed his findings.

After the publication of a report in which they pointed out deficiencies and irregularities in the regional elections, Maduro accused the observers of being “spies” and your decision further stains the elections that he has promoted as “free and fair.”

The European Union sent 130 people to supervise the vote, its first delegation in 15 years. (I)