MP says that the mayor of Maracaibo will be accused of corruption

The mayor of Maracaibo, the opposition Rafael Ramírez Colina, arrested on Tuesday, He will be accused of “serious irregular acts” related to corruptionThe Public Ministry announced this Wednesday.

According to a statement, in “the next few hours” Ramírez Colina and “other collaborators” will be presented before a court to “be charged with the serious irregular acts attributed to them,” based on “sufficient elements of conviction and reliable evidence” collected in “investigations carried out in coordination with the National Anti-Corruption Police.”

The MP pointed out that a prosecutor specialized in the matter “is processing several complaints against officials assigned to the Maracaibo Mayor’s Office for crimes provided for in the catalog of criminal types of the Anti-Corruption Law.

According to sources from the mayor’s office, the general director of citizen security of Maracaibo, David Barroso, and two members of Ramírez Colina’s security team were also arrested.

The Mayor’s Office of Maracaibo denounced this Wednesday that the arrest of its owner was carried out “without any justification or explanation”, so he demanded his “immediate” release.

The city council called for “respect for the institutions” and “the physical spaces of municipal public powers”, as well as the “protection of each of the more than 8,000 public servants” in the city.

The opposition party Primero Justicia (PJ) – of which the mayor is a member – demanded his “immediate” release and that of “the other detained officials, as well as the cessation of political persecution.

The formation indicated that the mayor was transferred to the headquarters of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin), while saying it did not know details about his condition and the reasons for which he was arrested.

The opposition leader María Corina Machado assured that The government unleashed a “wave of terror” in the country with the arrest of the mayor of Maracaibo and three members of his team, as well as a regional coordinator of the Vente Venezuela party, all arrested on Tuesday.

Ramírez Colina is one of the 154 politicians who according to Machado’s party (Vente Venezuela) are imprisoned in the country, the majority after being apprehended in the weeks before and after the controversial re-election of Nicolás Maduro in the July 28 elections. which has not been recognized by many countries.

In the elections, The mayor supported the candidacy of the opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, and joined the “legitimate citizen request” that the electoral body “publish the results” disaggregated.