Luisa Ortega Díaz, former Venezuelan attorney general, said that before leaving her country in mid-August 2017 she was persecuted for months by representatives of the government of Nicolás Maduro.
Ortega, who is visiting Costa Rica, served as a Venezuelan prosecutor from December 13th, 2007 until August 5th this year. That day she was stripped of her position in the first session of the National Constituent Assembly, promoted by Nicolás Maduro.
Afterwards, on August 18th, she left Caracas and went to Colombia. There, the government of President Juan Manuel Santos offered her political asylum.
Costa Rica is the flagship of Human Rights, that’s why I’m here,”
said the lawyer.
How did an official linked to chavismo go from one position to the other so soon? Ortega began to generate discomfort in pointing out serious violations of human rights perpetrated by the government, during opposition demonstrations.
For example, on May 24th she contradicted the government about the death of student Juan Pernalete, who lost his life to a bullet at a demonstration in Caracas.
There has been a misuse of weapons. The government was in charge of arming the population and that encouraged the fire and the violence (…) I was stripped of the position in 32 seconds. Look for the video, so you can see it yourselves,”
Ortega told the Costa Rican press.
The former attorney general assures that Diosdado Cabello, strong man of chavismo, is implicated in the corruption mega-scandal linked to the Brazilian construction company Oderbrecht. She has already presented evidence to US prosecutors and Brazilian officials.
Ortega pointed out that other senior officials of Maduro’s government are also involved in this millionaire plot of corruption. Some of the names she mentioned are Elías Jaua (former legislator and Minister of Education) and Jorge Rodríguez, Venezuelan former vicepresident.
As part of her short stay in Costa Rica, Ortega would submit some documents to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She still does not know in which country she would definitely settle with her husband, former legislator Germán Ferrer, and explain she cannot go back to her country because the government will torture and kill her.