Venezuela ex-intel chief missing in Spain ahead of US extradition: police

Venezuela’s former military intelligence chief has gone missing in Spain just days after a court approved a request for his extradition to the United States on drug trafficking charges, police said yesterday.

“They are currently looking for him,” said a spokeswoman for Spain’s national police, referring to General Hugo Armando Carvajal.

Judicial sources said police had gone to his house in Madrid after Friday’s court decision but could not find him.

In mid-September, Spain’s National Court had rejected a US extradition request, instead ordering the release of Carvajal, who served as intelligence chief under the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

His release followed five months in provisional detention after being arrested in Madrid in mid-April.

But the court reversed that decision on Friday after accepting an appeal from the public prosecutor’s office, although full details of the ruling have not yet been made public.