Covington & Burling Secures Venue for Human Rights Case Against Venezuela

Miguel López Forastier was featured in a Law.com International Q&A discussing his team's pro bono work alongside the Clooney Foundation for Justice. In response to a complaint filed by Covington and CFJ, an Argentine prosecutor opened a criminal probe into human rights violations allegedly committed by Venezuelan security forces during protests against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in 2014.

In the Q&A, Miguel explains how Argentina could exercise universal jurisdiction over crimes of this nature committed in another country, leading Covington to file its complaint there. He also delves into why Covington got involved and the role the firm has played in the matter, as well as what the most interesting twists and turns in the case have been thus far.

Notably, Miguel said, "… undoubtedly the biggest surprise for us has been how the complaint led in record time (less than a month after being filed) to the initiation of a criminal probe. We understand that this is the first time in history that a criminal probe based on universal jurisdiction is directly initiated in Argentina by a prosecutor rather than a judge. While Argentine courts have initiated criminal probes based on universal jurisdiction in prior cases, Argentine prosecutors and first-instance judges had always refused initially to exercise universal jurisdiction, and probes commenced only after initial decisions refusing to exercise universal jurisdiction were reversed on appeal."

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