The Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López has made himself available to the Spanish justice before the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela to request his extradition to Spain. “Given the persecution of the Maduro dictatorship, now reflected in an illegal extradition request, once again I make myself available to justice,” López announced in a message on Twitter, in which he informed of his request to appear volunteer before the National Court. In the letter, published together with his message, López expresses his “absolute willingness to appear voluntarily as many times as he is called” by the National Court “on the occasion of the extradition” requested by the Venezuelan justice. The opponent also requests that “pretrial and/or police measures be avoided.”

Leopoldo López underlines, in reference to the National Court, that he places himself at the disposal of justice “of a country with democratic institutions, separation of powers and justice, in which I fully trust”. In the brief presented on Wednesday before the central investigative courts of the National Court, the opponent appoints a solicitor and lawyer.

The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela reported this Tuesday that it requested Spain to extradite opposition politician Leopoldo López, who left his country clandestinely at the end of October, across the border with Colombia.. “The Criminal Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice declared it admissible to request from the Kingdom of Spain the active extradition of the citizen Leopoldo Eduardo López Mendoza, for the faithful fulfillment of the rest of his sentence in Venezuelan territory,” the court declared in a statement..

According to the text, the sentence that López must serve is “eight years, six months, 25 days and 12 hours” for the crimes of “determiner in the crime of fire, determiner in the crime of damage, author in the crime of instigation public and association”. The highest court indicated that it sent the sentence with its certified copies and the “actions that are in the file” to the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, without adding more details.. On October 24, it was learned that the opponent left Venezuela for Madrid, after spending 18 months at the residence of the Spanish ambassador in Caracas, where he was a guest while he was requested by the local Justice and accused of being a terrorist by the chavista executive.

The opponent entered the ambassador's residence after he came out of house arrest on April 30, 2019, to join an attempted military uprising led by opposition leader Juan Guaidó. After arriving in Madrid, he was received by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, at the PSOE headquarters, in a meeting that was broadcast by the socialist party on social networks with the message: “The PSOE wants a peaceful way” to the crisis in Venezuela, “because the Venezuelan people must suffer the minimum”.

Sánchez's reception of López was not well received by the Venezuelan ruler, Nicolás Maduro, who by then said that the Spanish president “always” makes “mistakes” with Venezuela. Before taking refuge in the Spanish embassy and fleeing Venezuela, López had been serving a sentence in a military prison in Caracas since September 2015 after being accused of being responsible for the riots that occurred at the end of an anti-government march in 2014, in which three died. people. After learning of the extradition request, the leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, urged the Spanish government on Tuesday to express that it does not recognize “a court of a dictatorship” such as the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela and that it will not agree to the extradition of opposition member Leopoldo López.