By Deutsche Welle
Dec 12, 2024, 1:37 PM EST
The plenary session of the Congress of Deputies gave the green light this Thursday to a PP initiative for the Spanish Government to request an arrest warrant against the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in a vote that went ahead thanks to the support of Vox and the abstentions of Junts and PNV.
The non-legal proposal requires the government to adhere to the demand presented in 2018, go to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and demand progress in the situation in Venezuelaas well as requesting its preliminary issues chamber to issue an arrest warrant against Maduro and other suspects of the “perpetration of crimes against humanity.”
“Immediate cessation” of repression and release of political prisoners
The PSOE, Sumar and Podemos voted against the petition, as well as two other demands included in the text presented by the Popular Party, considering that they represent an interference against the independence of the International Criminal Court (ICC), although the PP finally obtained take it forward.
Thus, Congress will ask the government of Pedro Sánchez to issue a public statement addressed to Maduro to demand the “immediate cessation” of the repression and the release of all political prisoners and arbitrarily detained people.
The government must also present to the Lower House within a month a report on the actions carried out by the Spanish embassy in Caracas in “defense of the fundamental rights of Spanish citizens who are victims of crimes against humanity.”
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