The National Court has extended the provisional detention of the former Venezuelan military Hugo Armando El Pollo Carvajal up to the maximum legal limit of four years, which will expire on April 1, 2025. The main reason is the "high risk" that he will escape, which would prevent an extradition to the United States that the Court has already agreed. The Prosecutor's Office supported the maintenance of the precautionary measure.
The Third Section of the Criminal Chamber recalls that El Pollo had already been on the run for almost two years, between November 2019 and September 2021. He was found hiding in an apartment in Madrid, different from where his partner and their five children are registered. The former head of military intelligence with Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro hid from the National Court the same day that the Plenary of the Criminal Chamber revoked the initial decision and agreed to extradite him to be tried for drug trafficking.
"This situation of flight, insofar as he voluntarily stopped appearing on November 15, 2019 and remained out of the reach of this court, allows us to infer that the risk of a new abduction from the procedure is high," the magistrates affirm.
The defense of the Venezuelan has managed to stop the effective delivery in multiple ways. One of them, that the US had not requested a guarantee that he would not suffer life imprisonment, a penalty that can be imposed for drug trafficking. These guarantees, points out the Chamber that has extended the prison, have already been obtained.
Another brake on the delivery has been their requests for asylum in Spain. This protection, which guarantees presence in Spain while it is being processed, was denied the first time and again when El Pollo requested it again. Finally, he has filed an appeal before the Strasbourg Court, which also blocks the extradition.
For the Chamber, "the seriousness of the flight risk, which would frustrate international legal cooperation when the extradition has already been judicially and governmentally authorized, is evident" by the defendant's conduct, "clearly dilatory and aimed at preventing the materialization of the delivery ".
The court highlights that he has requested international protection twice and has tried to stop the delivery, offering himself as a collaborator-complainant in Spain. He has also gone to the European Court of Human Rights, which has paralyzed the extradition. All of the above, "although it is legitimate, has as a consequence the non-materialization of the delivery and the maintenance of the instrumental provisional prison".
Finally, regarding the ties to Spain alleged by Carvajal's defense at the hearing held yesterday, the Chamber argues that such ties are "non-existent", since his partner and children registered in September 2021, that is, five months later. of the first arrest.
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