21-year old Orlando Figuera, a black supermarket worker and Chavista, being stabbed and burned alive by extreme-right guarimba thugs in Venezuela on May 20, 2017, passing away few weeks later. Photo: File photo.
The attorney general of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, has announced the requests for arrest warrants against four people, alleged to have been involved in the assassination of Orlando Figuera.
Saab explained via social media this Tuesday, May 22, that those purported to be involved have been identified as those nicknamed by Figuera before he died. These are: Yurber Rodríguez (the monkey), Elio Carrasquel (the overalls), Ángel Sucre (the Asian), and Cleiber Hernández (the freckles). A fifth subject was named as the malandrín (scoundrel) by Figuera as the “perpetrator of the stab wound,” Enzo Franchini Oliveros.
Seven years ago, the 21-year-old black Chavista Orlando Figuera, after leaving work, passed near a demonstration held by violent far-right protesters who, according to witness accounts, presumed that he was a Chavista and proceeded to stab him, spray him with fuel, and set him on fire.
#AHORA@MinpublicoVEN Consolida Avances en la investigación contra los autores del #atroz Homicidio cometido contra Orlando Figuera, durante las criminales guarimbas provocadas en el año 2017
en tal sentido el Ministerio Público ha realizado una serie de #acciones entre las… pic.twitter.com/cguCj1mvWb
— Tarek William Saab (@TarekWiliamSaab) May 22, 2024
One of the involved reported in Spain
Saab further elaborated on the proceedings carried out by the Venezuelan Public Ministry, that on October 13, 2017, and May 20, 2019, respectively, an arrest warrant and an Interpol red notice were issued against Enzo Franchini Oliveros, for the crimes of homicide and terrorism, in these instances. Later, on July 10, 2019, Franchini was arrested in Spain.
However, on November 20, 2019, he was released, even though Venezuela complied with the extradition procedure before the Supreme Court of Justice and properly used the diplomatic channels customary for this cases, Saab reported.
The extradition process of Figuera’s murderer had initially been agreed upon by the Royal Court of Spain, “but in response to an appeal filed by the Prosecutor’s Office of said country, the Royal Court revoked its decision and denied the extradition, with the excuse that it was about a ‘politically persecuted man,’ when in reality he is a murderer,” Saab added, explaining that this is why the Public Ministry will request a copy of the ruling of the Royal Spanish Court that denies Franchini’s extradition.
PSUV Deputy Diosdado Cabello requested “an investigation of the crime against Orlando Figuera” from the National Assembly this Tuesday, demanding that the material and intellectual perpetrators of the young man’s assassination, an event that occurred seven years ago, be punished.
Following this, the plenary session of parliament approved an agreement which detailed that the Internal Policy commission must investigate these events in depth.
Spain Rejects Extradition of Orlando Figuera’s Murderer – Black Chavista Burned Alive in 2017
Deputy Diosdado Cabello, who made the proposal, highlighted that this event is one of the most painful events that occurred in the country, and that at no time did the opposition speak out about it, going so far as to include the victim in lists pretending that he had been murdered by the State.
Cabello added this Wednesday on his television program Con el Mazo Dando that Figuera’s assassination is not the only one that afflicted Venezuela during the 2017 guarimbas, but that many other similar incidents were reported in other parts of the country and have resulted in controversial and ineffective judiciary decisions.
He blamed the former Attorney General, and now active far-right figure, Luisa Ortega Diaz, as the main cause for the deficient work of the Venezuelan Judiciary in punishing these crimes. He demanded an in-depth investigation and the reopening of all the cases to properly address the far-right violence promoted by the hate speech of the opposition political leadership, led by Leopoldo Lopez, Enrique Capriles, Antonio Ledezma, Maria Corina Machado, among others.
(Alba Ciudad) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
