The vice president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Iris Varela, questioned the Supreme Court of Justice and the Public Ministry on Wednesday about the arrest of Juan Guaido. He said he wanted to be told why the opposition leader has not been detained.
“I would like to hear an explanation from Tarek William Saab and Maikel Moreno,” Varela said this Wednesday in an interview with Globovision television about the attorney general and the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, respectively.
“I would like you to tell the country what is the reason why a subject who is committing a crime ‘in flagrante delicto’ is not arrested. That is what we are going to ask us in the National Assembly, they are invited to appear before the special commission”, he added.
In January, the Parliament elected in the disputed December elections created in its first session a special commission aimed at investigating what it calls “crimes” allegedly committed by various opposition deputies elected in 2015. A commission that had even been proposed by the own Varela.
Who is Varela, the deputy who calls for the arrest of Juan Guaido?
The deputy, who years ago was Minister of the People’s Power for the Penitentiary Service, accuses Guaido and those whom he describes as “his gang”, without presenting evidence, of promising to the “government of England to leave them the gold and deliver our Essequibo to Guyana. Practically renouncing our rights over the Essequibo in exchange for recognition of an authority that they do not have and that the people have not given them ”.
During the interview, Varela said that if he met Guaido he would stop him. “If I find him, I will stop him and place him at the command of the authority,” he said as he took handcuffs from his wallet. There is no arrest warrant against the opposition leader, but when questioned about it, the deputy said that according to article 44 of the Constitution, a person cannot be detained without a judicial warrant “unless they are caught red-handed. That is the exception”, he emphasized.
Tarek William Saab and Juan Guaido’s press teams told Globe Live Media that they will not comment on Varela’s statements. Citizen Free Press is trying to communicate with Moreno for his reaction and with Varela for further comments.