WOLA Expresses Support for the Extradition Request of Former Venezuelan Colonel Ephraín Enrique Verdú Torrelles Before Spanish Authorities

June 1, 2026

In the absence of an independent judiciary in Venezuela and the State’s lack of willingness to investigate and sanction such conduct, the legal team at InterJust filed a criminal complaint in June 2023 before a federal court in Argentina against 14 officers of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) for alleged crimes against humanity. This was done pursuant to the principle of universal jurisdiction, recognized in Argentine law, which enables national courts to exercise jurisdiction over the most serious international crimes — regardless of where they were committed or the nationality of the accused or the victims — when the territorial State lacks the will or capacity to investigate and prosecute them. It is within this framework that the extradition request for former Colonel Verdú Torrelles is currently being processed. He served as second-in-command of the Urban Security Detachment (Desur) in Tocuyito, Carabobo state, and is currently residing in Spain.

Among the victims of these events is Geraldin Moreno Orozco, a 23-year-old student and athlete killed by GNB agents in February 2014 while participating in a protest in Carabobo. Her mother, Rosa Orozco, has spent more than twelve years demanding that her daughter’s death not go unpunished. For her and for the families of the victims, this process represents far more than a legal proceeding: it is the acknowledgment that their loved ones died at the hands of State agents, and that the State cannot perpetuate its silence indefinitely.

Venezuela is the only country in the Americas with an open investigation before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela has documented serious human rights violations committed since 2014, and its 2025 report on the role of the GNB explicitly names former Colonel Ephraín Enrique Verdú Torrelles. This accumulation of international evidence only underscores what Venezuelan victims have been denouncing for years: that the crimes committed against them were systematic, and that those responsible continue to enjoy impunity.

Crimes against humanity are not subject to a statute of limitations. This principle, enshrined in international law, exists precisely so that the passage of time cannot become a shield for those who perpetrated the gravest violations of human dignity. Venezuela needs to move toward a genuine process of democratic re-institutionalization, and that process demands the dismantling of the repressive apparatus that made these crimes possible. Without truth, without accountability, and without guarantees of non-recurrence, what is being offered is not reconciliation but imposed forgetting — which, far from healing wounds, perpetuates them.

Universal jurisdiction is an extraordinary mechanism that is rarely activated, which makes each case a milestone in its own right. The process now advancing in Argentina — whose outcome depends on Spain’s cooperation — is one of those rare opportunities in which the international community honors its commitment to victims. It must not be squandered.

WOLA urges the competent authorities of Spain to grant the extradition request for Verdú Torrelles and to cooperate fully with the ongoing judicial process. We likewise urge Argentina to proceed with full judicial guarantees and due process. The path to justice for Venezuelan victims is long, but every step counts.