Maickel Villegas found guilty of kidnapping and murder of Ronald Ojeda in Santiago
Santiago's 11th Guarantee Court found Maickel Villegas Rodríguez guilty of his participation in the case of former Venezuelan lieutenant Ronald Ojeda.
First defendant convicted in murder case of former Venezuelan lieutenant Ronald Ojeda in Chile
Santiago's 11th Guarantee Court of Chile found Maickel Villegas Rodríguez guilty of his participation in the kidnapping and murder of former Venezuelan lieutenant Ronald Ojeda, which occurred in February 2024, according to panampost.com.
The Public Prosecution Service accused Villegas of being linked to the cell Los Piratas del Tren de Aragua. According to the evidence gathered, on the night of the kidnapping he surveilled the surroundings of Ojeda's residence, transported the kidnappers and recorded a video of the act from a parked car outside the building where the victim lived.
The regional prosecutor of the Southern Metropolitan Public Prosecution Service, Héctor Barros, who was in charge of the investigation, described the ruling as a "forceful verdict", as it was the first of the defendants captured in different countries in the region. "The evidence accounted for the facts that we have established. What satisfies us most is that the family had the opportunity to have justice," Barros declared, according to Emol.
Regarding Ojeda's murder, several motives have been considered, including one of a political nature, a hypothesis that has gained strength in recent months with accusations made by Barros against Diosdado Cabello, the number two in Chavismo. However, the prosecutor clarified that this line was not subject to proof in this trial.
"It is an investigative line that remains open and that we did not set out to prove in this trial because Villegas's participation is different, it is not the same as that of the leaders. We are going to prove that position in another trial, where the top leaders of this organisation are, and they are the ones who make the decisions," Barros added.
Ojeda was in Chile as a political refugee after having fled Venezuela.
Regarding the sentence, the Public Prosecution Service had previously requested 20 years of imprisonment. Barros explained that the request was conditional on the circumstances of the initial formalisation: "Villegas was the first one to be identified, while Villegas was the second to be detained; at that moment there was kidnapping with murder, the functioning of the structure came later and we were bound by what we formalised on the first day".
The court is expected to announce the final sentence and the penalty that Maickel Villegas Rodríguez must serve in the coming days.
Source: Google News CL — Crime