The Supreme Court of Justice has made final the extradition of Luis Abraham Bastidas Ramírez, a former PDVSA executive, detained in Córdoba and requested by the Principality of Andorra for the alleged laundering of about 5 million dollars. The highest court confirmed the decision that declared the extradition admissible for the continuing major crime of money laundering derived from corruption, in a case related to the use of Andorran banks to launder funds from illicit schemes. Bastidas Ramírez was detained in 2018 by the Federal Police's Fugitive Investigation Division in Córdoba following criminal intelligence tasks. In October 2021, the court declared the extradition admissible, which was appealed by the defense, while the General Prosecutor's Office advised ratifying the ruling, according to the Argentine News Agency. In the ruling, judges Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti rejected the defense's arguments. The accused refused to be extradited, stating that he feared for his life and physical integrity if he were later sent to Venezuela, and requested to be recognized as a political refugee. In a first instance, the magistrate denied the request due to formal defects, but in 2020 the Supreme Court annulled that decision. He had arrived in the country three years earlier, where he ran a kiosk while his wife ran a hair salon. The case was in the hands of Federal Court No. 3 of Córdoba, headed by Miguel Hugo Vaca Narvaja. They stated that the questioning about the lack of a clear description of the criminal acts resulted in a reiteration of arguments already analyzed and that the Principality of Andorra informed that the preceding crime consisted in the receipt of bribes by PDVSA executives who intervened in the awarding of works to certain companies in exchange for a price. They also dismissed the statute of limitations claim, considering that the requisition was accompanied by specific references to the date of the commission of the fact, an explanation of why the criminal action was not extinguished, and the certified transcription of the applicable criminal and procedural norms.
