More than 200 Argentine social organizations reject lawfare against Venezuela

More than 200 social organizations linked to the political and social life of Argentina repudiated the instrumentalization of the judicial power of the southern country for purposes of political persecution against the highest authorities of the Venezuelan State.

This is stated in an open letter to the international community signed by 201 Argentine social, academic and political leaders, in which they pointed out the legal contradictions of Chamber 1 of the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court, whose members ordered the execution of “arrest warrants” against President Nicolás Maduro Moros and the Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello.

“This illegal and excessive decision marks a new chapter of ‘lawfare’, taking on the dimension of an international persecution operation that adds to the interventionist, meddling and destabilizing policies led by the United States, supported by other States, transnational companies, social networks, monopolistic media corporations, and dependent and related political sectors,” the document states.

Below is the full letter:

September 24, 2024

Open letter to the International Community

The undersigned organizations and personalities linked to Argentine political and social life, address the international community and especially the highest authorities of multilateral and intergovernmental international organizations, in order to make public our repudiation of a new case in our country of the use of judicial power for political persecution, directed against the highest authorities of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

This time, Chamber I of the Federal Criminal and Correctional Court, composed of judges Mariano Llorens, Leopoldo Bruglia and Pablo Bertuzzi (the latter unconstitutionally appointed to said body by former President Mauricio Macri, without competition and without the agreement of the Senate of the Nation), revoked the legal resolution of the first instance judge, Sebastián Ramos, and ordered him to immediately execute the arrest warrants for Nicolás Maduro Moros and Diosdado Cabello, and to order via Interpol their international arrest for extradition purposes to the Argentine Republic.

We highlight the unlawfulness and contradiction in which the judges fall, by trying to initiate an investigation in Argentina of the same false criminal lawsuit against the legitimate president of Venezuela, which our country – as part of the Lima group when Macri governed, Milei’s ally – had already taken to the International Criminal Court, thus incurring in the violation of basic rules established for the admission of Universal Jurisdiction, developed in the “Princeton Principles”, such as No. 9 “non bis in idem”. This flagrant contradiction of the Argentine State to initiate an investigation of something that it already promoted in international courts is the reason why the first instance judge did not proceed with it. Some of these events, on the other hand, have already been investigated and judged in Venezuela – where a Commission for Truth, Justice, Peace and Public Tranquility was even formed to vindicate the rights of more than 100 direct and indirect victims of the violent protests in 2017 and who have already received reparation measures and comprehensive care.

This illegal and excessive decision is part of a new chapter of “lawfare” that takes on the dimension of an international persecution operation that adds to the interventionist, meddling and destabilizing policies led by the United States, supported by other States, transnational companies, social networks, monopolistic media corporations, and dependent and related political sectors, which have even attempted to militarily invade the country.

The choice of Argentina as a platform for attacking the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is related to Mr. Javier Milei’s unconditional alignment with the most aberrant powers of humanity that perpetrate or support, for example, the genocide in Gaza, and the impoverishment and subjugation of the popular majorities in the face of the insatiable appetite of big capital. And judicial warfare or lawfare is one of the effective vehicles when it comes to trying to neutralize processes, leaderships and governments of a popular nature. In this sense, the judicial apparatus of our country is once again being used for this purpose, but this time with the seriousness of being an extraterritorial operation that infringes the sovereignty of a sister nation and violates fundamental principles of international law.

This attack not only attacks a sovereign country, but also the Argentine people themselves by distorting and manipulating our heritage of Memory, Truth and Justice against the architects and leaders of the terrorist state of the last civil-military dictatorship who represented the same interests that are now attacking Venezuela. For this reason, we reject the trivialization of the legal tool of universal jurisdiction and the figure of crimes against humanity, which have been so valuable to Argentine society in its historic and exemplary struggle led by the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, as well as the guarantee of non-repetition, by being used opportunistically by judges who – in addition to lacking the proper constitutional designation – act in accordance with foreign geopolitical interests, putting at risk the legal security and international relations of our country.

We warn that the admission of this legal aberration into the international system may mean the use of Interpol by a State that, without a legitimate interest and due jurisdiction, seeks to limit the freedom of a political leader of another sovereign nation through its judicial power, as a means of persecution and attack, which would lead to the destruction of the order of peaceful coexistence and respect for sovereignty between nations, which is already so altered in the present times.

We also note that this is the same judiciary that is responsible for the repression of peaceful demonstrations by retirees and other citizen protests ordered by Waldo Wolf (current Minister of Security of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires) who, in turn, is the driving force behind this crude legal action against Venezuela, initiated by a foundation of American origin (Clooney Foundation for Justice), with funding from transnational corporations and foundations of the same origin.

Finally, we want to make it clear that the current violations of all human rights of the Argentine population by government decisions and the emptying of public policies that guarantee those rights, causing hunger – while food is perversely stored in warehouses and allowed to expire -, unemployment, health problems and other hardships, would not be possible without a discredited permissive judicial power that not only covers up the social injustice deployed in our country, but also pretends to be an accomplice to the interventionism, coups and legal war against the people of Venezuela.

For all these reasons, we who sign this letter wish to alert the international community about this attack on the highest offices of the Bolivarian government and request its support to thwart this new act of international interference.

This petition is signed by:

Ana María Careaga Director of the Institute for Memory Space
Stella Calloni Institute for the Space for Memory / REDH
Atilio Boron REDH / UNDAV
Claudia Viviana Rocca Vice President of the American Association of Jurists/President of the Argentine Association of Jurists
Oscar Laborde – former ambassador to Venezuela – Director of the Latin American Research Institute (IDEAL).
Andrea Vlahusic Secretary General/Argentine Association of Jurists
Alicia Castro, former Argentine ambassador to Venezuela and the United Kingdom
Paula Klachko Coordinator Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity (REDH) Argentina / UNDAV / UNPAZ
Hugo Cachorro Godoy Autonomous CTA
Daniel Catalano ATE Capital
Carlos Raimundi OPEIR AND FRENTE GRANDE PARTY
Carlos Tomada – former ambassador to Mexico
Ariel Basteiro – former ambassador to the plurinational State of Bolivia, CTA Union leader, Frente Grande Leader.
Juliana Marino Deputy (MC) / REDH
Matias Fachal Argentine Judicial Federation
Federico Giuliani Secretary General of ATE and CTA Córdoba
Julio Fuentes President of the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of State Workers (CLATE)
Maria Lucrecia Hernandez Sures. Studies and defense of human rights
Tamara Lajtman Lawfare Observatory /REDH
Juan Falú Musician
Hector Diaz-Polanco Deputy of the Congress of Mexico City
Gabriela Rivadeneira, president of IDEAL
Rafael Bielsa – former Argentine Foreign Minister
Jorge Kreyness – General Secretary of the Communist Party of Argentina
Eduardo S. Barcesat- Jurist.
Gaston Harispe – Secretary General of the Octubres Movement – National Deputy (MC) – PARLASUR Deputy.
Gustavo Ramón Muñoz – Territorial Liberation Movement (MTL)
Jorge Drkos – Frente Transversal, Senator (MC).
Araceli Ferreira- National Deputy (MC) – Feminist activist.
Edgardo Depetri – National Deputy (MC)-National Leader CTA-A
Benigno López – National Peasant Front
Marcelo Coria – National Peasant Front
Andrés Bercum – Secretary of International Relations Descamisados
Cecilia Arregues – CTA-T Territorial Undersecretary.