Venezuelan authorities on Wednesday raided the house of ousted chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega and said they would seek the arrest of her husband for allegedly running a US$6 million extortion ring with corrupt prosecutors under her supervision.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab, who replaced Ortega after she was removed by the pro-government Constitutional Assembly, said the alleged criminal ring squeezed a range of defendants as well as businesspeople in the nation’s oil industry to protect them from prosecution.
He held up bank records which he said were evidence that Ortega’s husband, former pro-government lawmaker German Ferrer, last year opened a US$1 million account at the Bahamas branch of a Swiss bank with a prosecutor in charge of the nation’s biggest corruption case.
Photo: EPA
“What we’re exposing today is the tip of the iceberg of a cartel,” Saab said, alleging that Ortega, while not among those formally accused, surely knew of the crimes taking place. “This institution was converted into an authentic center of blackmail.”
Shortly after he spoke, Venezuelan intelligence agents raided Ortega’s apartment near downtown Caracas.
Saab’s call for Ferrer’s arrest came minutes after the leader of the ruling Socialist Party, Diosdado Cabello, appeared at his office to denounce the purported ring, leading many to conclude the accusation is an attempt to silence Ortega.
Ortega said she was being targeted because of her efforts to fight “totalitarianism.”
“They’re trying to end our fight for Venezuela’s freedom and democracy,” she said on Twitter, blaming Cabello as well as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by name.
A long-time government loyalist, Ortega broke with Maduro in April and has led opposition to his plans to rewrite the constitution, accusing the embattled president of betraying the legacy of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and being immersed in corruption.
Also being sought for arrest are the prosecutor and the defending attorney in a case involving US$100 million in bribes that Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht has acknowledged paying to top officials in exchange for contracts in Venezuela.
Before being removed, Ortega had sought charges against the wife and mother-in-law of Maduro’s former minister of transportation, Haiman El Troudi, who has denied any wrongdoing.
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