Chile meets ICC officials over Tren de Aragua-linked murder of Venezuelan dissident

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SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chilean officials met with International Criminal Court representatives on Friday to provide information about the murder of a Venezuelan dissident they claim is relevant to an ongoing ICC investigation into alleged human rights abuses by Venezuelan government officials.

Chile’s attorney general and minister of foreign affairs say the murder of Ronald Ojeda, a former Venezuelan lieutenant who was kidnapped from his apartment in Santiago by men posing as police and later murdered, was carried out by the Tren de Aragua gang and is linked to the Venezuelan government.

Angel Valencia, Chile’s attorney general, said in statement that Ojeda’s murder “doesn’t have the characteristics of a normal crime.”

“All the evidence we have at this state of the investigation lets us conclude that a cell or group linked to the Tren de Aragua that was politically motivated that originated from a order of a political nature,” Valencia said in a recorded statement on Thursday.

He added that the investigation Chile is carrying out and the ICC investigation are “related” and “have connections”, noting that the government would hand over its strong evidence to the ICC.

In a statement on Friday, Venezuela’s government said that the accusations were baseless.

“This position doesn’t just lack a legal basis, but is sustained by a vicious hate towards Venezuela, showing the desperation to please the agendas set by the United States,” the statement said, adding that Venezuela could “give lessons in respecting human rights.”

Ojeda was murdered in February 2024 and, this January, police conducted large-scale raids across Santiago, arresting several members of the Tren de Aragua gang the government said were implicated in the murder.

“The big question is whether this crime obeyed the actions of foreign agents,” Alberto van Klaveren, Chile’s foreign minister said in a statement on Friday. “That would obviously mean a particularly serious situation for our country because it also means a violation of our sovereignty.”

(Reporting by Alexander Villegas and Nicolas Cortes; Additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb’ Editing by Alistair Bell)