Chile seeks to question Maduro in dissident killing case

BOGOTA, Colombia

Chilean Attorney General Ángel Valencia will travel to Washington next week to meet US Attorney General Pam Bondi as part of Chile’s investigation into the 2024 killing of Venezuelan dissident Ronald Ojeda.

Valencia confirmed Wednesday that Chile will request US assistance to question former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who is in federal custody in New York after his Jan. 3 capture during a US military operation in Caracas and subsequent indictment on narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking charges.

Ojeda, a former Venezuelan army lieutenant and critic of Maduro’s government, was granted political asylum in Chile in late 2023.

In February 2024, men posing as Chilean investigative police abducted him from his apartment in Santiago. His dismembered body was found 10 days later buried in a suitcase under a concrete slab.​​​​​​​

Chilean prosecutor Héctor Barros has said the killing was a state-ordered political assassination linked to Venezuela and the criminal group Tren de Aragua.

Investigators have also pointed to Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello as a possible organizer of the operation.

Valencia said questioning Maduro could help establish key evidence needed to formally indict those responsible.