In a non-law proposal, he demands that a Venezuelan opponent and a victim of persecution by the Maduro regime be given asylum

MADRID, 15 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PP wants the Government to review and suspend the extradition agreement with Venezuela, where it considers that justice is not independent, and to grant asylum to the Venezuelan opponent Rolando Figueroa, persecuted by the Nicolás Maduro regime and who has been denied on two occasions.

The 'popular' have presented a non-law proposal in the Congress of Deputies, to which Europa Press has had access, by which they seek the Lower House to urge the Executive to act in this line both with Venezuela and with others countries where justice is not independent and is one more tool of repression against the opposition.

In its statement of reasons, the PP argues that "extradition is an instrument of cooperation between nations that implies recognition of the judicial systems and the standards of separation of powers and the quality of the rule of law between the different nations."

"Venezuela is a State in which the main leaders of the Government are sanctioned by the EU and many of them are persecuted by several States for crimes related to drug trafficking," they recall in the text, also denouncing that "Justice is controlled by the dictatorship and the courts are an instrument of repressive politics".

Thus, the accent is placed on the case of Rolando Figueroa, affiliated with Voluntad Popular "the reference group of the opposition to the Nicolás Maduro regime" and Ernesto Luis Quintero Méndez, who worked in "a company that, before being expropriated by the Venezuelan authorities financed media related to the opposition", for which they receive "constant threats".

In the last two years, according to the PP, the Ministry of the Interior has denied the asylum requests of both on up to two occasions "while Venezuela claims them in what is an evident political persecution."

In the opinion of those of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, given the circumstances in Venezuela and that even the International Criminal Court (ICC) "has initiated a procedure for crimes against humanity", "it is urgent to suspend the extradition treaty" between Spain and Venezuela from 1989.

The 'popular' deputies also request the "review of the different bilateral extradition agreements against those countries that have been shown not to offer judicial guarantees for a fair trial for the accused, that do not respect the presumption of innocence and therefore do not respect several of the basic articles and precepts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".

For this reason, they want the Congress of Deputies to urge the Government to "review and suspend the extradition agreements with Venezuela and with the rest of the countries that do not guarantee the independence of their judicial institutions and use the courts to repress the opposition."

In addition, they propose asking the Executive to recognize the right to asylum of both Rolando Figueroa and Ernesto Luis Quintero Méndez and to force him to recognize "Spain's commitment to defending the freedom of expression, thought and opinion of all people, established in Article 20.1 of the Spanish Constitution".