Venezuela seeks arrest of fugitive judge through Interpol

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela asked Interpol yesterday to issue a notice for the arrest of a former Supreme Court justice who fled the country after he was removed from the bench for allegedly assisting a drug trafficker.

Eladio Aponte, who has accused President Hugo Chavez’s government of manipulating the judiciary and having links to the drug trade, fled two weeks ago to Costa Rica and was flown to the United States by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to a Costa Rican official.

The retired colonel and former chief military prosecutor is expected to share potentially embarrassing information with the DEA that could lead to new drug charges against members of the Venezuelan government.

A Venezuelan prosecutor asked Interpol to put Aponte on its red notice list based on an arrest warrant issued in Caracas on Wednesday, the Attorney General’s office said in a statement.

The Venezuelan court that issued the arrest order also impounded Aponte’s assets and blocked his bank accounts. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicholas Maduro said Aponte had “sold his soul to the DEA” and accused the United States of picking a fugitive from Venezuelan justice to use him as a political tool to attack Chavez’s leftist government. Aponte, 63, left Venezuela after the country’s legislature, the National Assembly, removed him from the Supreme Court due to allegations that he had authorized a special government identity card for Walid Makled, a Venezuelan businessman jailed on drug trafficking charges.

Makled, who is wanted in the United States on drug trafficking charges, was arrested in Colombia in 2010 and extradited to Venezuela, where he is on trial.