If PROVEA does not publish my comment to Marino Alvarado, I will share it here, just in case.
Dear Mr. Alvarado,
As a Venezuelan of Basque descent, whose family also came to Venezuela due to Franco’s regime, I would like to express some opinions regarding your article, which I hope will be published here unedited.
I will start from the beginning. Arturo Cubillas indeed arrived in Venezuela with a group of ETA members in the late 80s, coming from Algiers if I’m not mistaken, thanks to an agreement between then Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez and then Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Perez. The how and when he arrived is less relevant than the reason for his arrival. Can you or Cubillas credibly claim that his motivation was anything other than committing crimes and being part of a terrorist organization?
It’s true that those ETA members are not in Venezuela because of Chavez. Now, can you or Cubillas provide any example or evidence, prior to Chavez’s rise to power, that shows any of the extradited members who arrived in 1989 were appointed to public positions?
The connection between Goizeder Odriozola, Arturo Cubillas’ wife, and Hugo Chavez with Elias Jaua led to Cubillas’ current position at the Ministry of Land. Can you or Cubillas provide any evidence that this appointment was the result of an open selection process for the position and not simply a direct appointment? In light of your arguments regarding the obligation of this group to regularly report to state security under the governments of CAP, Caldera, and Chavez, can you or Cubillas explain why that obligation seems to have faded?
Certainly, Arturo Cubillas has the same rights as any other citizen. However, considering the accusations against him from the National Court in Spain and INTERPOL requests asking for his arrest and extradition, do you or Cubillas believe that using fake ID numbers in his petition to the prosecutor helps dispel doubts about his character? You have claimed to know Cubillas well and to be aware of his activities since he arrived in Venezuela, even asserting that you are “100% sure” of his innocence. Nevertheless, you also stated, without hesitation, that you were unaware of Cubillas’ position at the Ministry of Land. So, do you really know Cubillas or not? How can you be so certain of his innocence, which implies questioning the legitimacy of the decisions made by judges in the Spanish court?
Given that you know Arturo Cubillas so well, how can you guarantee the innocence of someone who arrived in the country due to connections with a terrorist group? What do you, as a human rights defender, say to the families of the police officers murdered by the Oker command, to which Arturo Cubillas belonged before coming to Venezuela? And what about the families of the 813 ETA victims since the shift to democracy in Spain?
It seems you had Goizeder Odriozola as a colleague. Is this why you decided to defend Cubillas? If Cubillas no longer has any ties to ETA, can you explain why the newspaper Gara, considered the voice of ETA, has published opinions from Goizeder Odriozola?
You mentioned accompanying Cubillas to the prosecutor and waiting for investigations to progress. Could you explain your trust in the Venezuelan prosecutor’s investigations, while ignoring those of the Spanish court? Are you familiar with UN Resolutions 1373 and 1624? In other words, Mr. Alvarado, do you genuinely believe that we can offer the benefit of the doubt to someone involved in terrorist activities and the murder of innocents?
I look forward to your response. Best regards.