The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Yvan Gil, accused the Argentine government on Tuesday of being linked to an alleged terrorist plan against Caracas and confirmed that the gendarme arrested in the country last week “is being processed.”
According to Gil, Argentine President Javier Milei and his Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, were “discovered” trying to “introduce violent elements” to Venezuela.
“They have made a serious mistake and have left countless physical evidence along the way that implicates them in a terrorist plan,” he wrote on his social networks on Tuesday night.
This week, the Venezuelan Minister of the Interior and Justice, Diosdado Cabello, confirmed the arrest of the non-commissioned officer of the Argentine National Gendarmerie, Nahuel Agustín Gallo, after entering the country.
Milei demanded his immediate release and warned that they will exhaust all diplomatic channels to return him to his country.
Meanwhile, Gil maintained that the gendarme “wanted to infiltrate” Venezuela and assured that “he is being prosecuted with full respect for the rule of law and Venezuelan justice.”
“Leave despair now and assume the consequences of your behavior that shames the noble Argentine people,” he said.
Gallo, 33, entered Venezuelan territory from Colombia through the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge, to reach the state of Táchira, according to a joint statement from the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Security of Argentina.
The gendarme’s mother-in-law, Yalitza García, reported that they do not know his whereabouts and insisted on a conversation with the Voice of America in which he traveled to Venezuela to meet his wife and son, and later return together to Argentina.
This week García went to the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) to find out if he is at that headquarters, but was unable to confirm it.
The arrest increases tensions between Caracas and Buenos Aires, which last week denounced before the Organization of American States that the government of Nicolás Maduro continues to harass six opponents asylum in its diplomatic headquarters in Venezuela.
Over the weekend, almost nine months after entering the residence of the Argentine embassy in Venezuela, refugees close to opposition leader María Corina Machado denounced in their first virtual press conference that they face a “high risk” situation. .
They warned that they are in the midst of growing uncertainty, after, according to their complaints; The Venezuelan government intensified a police siege against the diplomatic headquarters and cut off the electricity and drinking water supply.
Venezuela broke diplomatic relations with Argentina, after Buenos Aires questioned the results of the presidential elections of July 28 that gave victory to Maduroand Brazil assumed its diplomatic representation in Caracas.
Subsequently, the Venezuelan government revoked Brazil’s authorization to represent Argentina’s interests in its territory.
On Monday, the Colombian government urged the Venezuelan authorities to adhere to the principles of International Law, and reiterated that together with Brazil it has offered its good offices to “guarantee the protection and assume custody” of the diplomatic headquarters and provide international protection to the six people.
Although it has not disclosed disaggregated results, the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner of the July presidential elections for a third term, but the opposition, which published copies of the minutes kept by its table witnesses, denounces fraud and attributes the victory to former candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, exiled in Spain since September.
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