Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks after the publication of the electoral results in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 20. After an assassination attempt on August 4, the OAS urged member states to refuse extradition requests for those suspected in the plot. File Photo by Miguel Gutierrez/EPA-EFE
Aug. 23 (UPI) -- The Organization of American States urged member nations to refuse extradition requests from the Venezuelan government in relation to the assassination attempt against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
"These 'extradition requests' linked to the alleged attack against Nicolás Maduro are flawed and should be ignored by the international community because the body that issues them is fraudulent, its members are impostors and their positions illegal," the OAS said in a statement. "In recent days we have witnessed spurious extradition requests made by the illegitimate supreme court of justice of the dictatorship headed by its illegal president Maikel Moreno."
The OAS went on to say the only legitimately democratic bodies of Venezuela are its National Assembly, elected in 2015 but not in more recent elections, exiled members of its Supreme Court and the exiled Attorney General -- officials who have been validated by the Inter-American and international community.
On June 4, Maduro survived an assassination attempt when drones exploded as he gave a speech in Caracas. Maduro was unharmed but several soldiers were injured.
Venezuelan officials have accused Delgado Tabosky, the son of a wealthy Venezuelan businessman in Miami, of financing the assassination attempt.
"He must face justice," Maduro said after the drone attack. "We have to get the U.S. government to turn over this assassin to us."
Since then, the Venezuelan government has issued several more extradition requests for suspects in the assassination attempt from Colombia, Peru and the United States.
