Chilean government announces arrest of suspect in murder of Venezuelan dissident – JURIST

The Chilean government confirmed Friday the arrest in Costa Rica of a suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Ronald Ojeda, a former military officer and Venezuelan dissident who has taken refuge in Chile. The arrest was made in response to an Interpol red notice, which prompted the Chilean Foreign Ministry to initiate extradition proceedings to bring the suspect to Chile for trial.

Manuel Monsalve, undersecretary of Chile’s Ministry of Interior and Public Security, announced that Costa Rican police had arrested Venezuelan Maickel David Villegas Rodríguez, 27, on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Ojeda. The victim’s body was found earlier this year buried under cement in a neighborhood in Maipú, Santiago. In June, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab suggested that the killing was politically motivated, calling it a “false flag” operation aimed at damaging diplomatic relations between Chile and Venezuela. However, the alleged political motivation for the killing remains under investigation.

Villegas Rodríguez was apprehended on a bus with migrants from Panama bound for Nicaragua via Costa Rica. At the Costa Rican border, the migration police identified him. Costa Rican Minister of Public Security Mario Zamora Cordero said that Villegas Rodríguez was arrested and transferred to San José, pending contact with Chilean authorities to begin extradition procedures.

Following Zamora Cordero’s statement, the Third Guarantee Court of Santiago held a hearing to formalize the investigation against Villegas in absentia. Prosecutor Esteban Silva argued for pretrial detention due to the risk of flight, while defense attorney Yerko Pizarro Astudillo strongly opposed the motion. Despite objections from the defense, the judge ordered that the details of the case be forwarded to the Santiago Court of Appeals to rule on extradition. The Court of Appeals then approved Villegas’ detention, rejecting the defense’s arguments and emphasizing that the conditions of detention had already been evaluated by the Guarantee Court. In addition to confirming the arrest warrant, the Public Ministry and the plaintiffs requested the intervention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to manage the diplomatic procedures related to Villegas Rodríguez’s detention and prevent his escape.

Ojeda’s widow, son and sister have since moved to Argentina, seeking refuge with the government of President Javier Milei. They cited experiences of surveillance and hacking attempts while in Chile as reasons for their departure. Chilean government spokeswoman Camila Vallejo Dowling responded to the move by expressing respect for the family’s decision while asserting that Chile is indeed a safe country. Vallejo said Chile would only comment further once it received official communication from the Argentine government regarding the family’s refugee status.