Government of Venezuela confirms arrest of Argentine gendarme, family members do not know his whereabouts

The Minister of the Interior and Justice of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, confirmed this Monday the arrest of a gendarme of Argentine nationality who, according to the government of Javier Milei, traveled to the country to visit his partner and son. His relatives report that they do not know where he is.

“Regarding what the Argentine Foreign Ministry says, how that has hurt them. A person was arrested, you go on his Instagram and he goes around the world, he travels all over the world, but his salary is 500 dollars. How did you do it? What did you come to do in Venezuela? What was your task here in Venezuela? They don’t say that, we will say it at some point,” he said at a press conference.

“Everyone puts up a facade, he had his girlfriend, his boyfriend (…) it hurt them because he came to fulfill a mission and it is not that the mission has been addressed, no, we have dealt him a hard blow,” he continued without giving more details.

First Corporal Nahuel Agustín Gallo, a 33-year-old non-commissioned officer of the Argentine National Gendarmerie, entered Venezuelan territory from Colombia on December 8 through the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge, to reach the state of Táchira, according to a joint statement. of the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Security of Argentina.

The greatest fear of Gallo’s relatives is that he could be accused of terrorism.

His mother-in-law, Yalitza García, went this Monday to the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), in Caracas, to ask if he is at that headquarters, but they did not give her “security” that he was there. The last thing they heard about him was that DGCIM agents arrested him and that he was interviewed.

“It’s exasperating. It has been a week of anguish, of nerve (…) this for the family is a disgrace, a nightmare,” he said, insisting that Gallo traveled to Venezuela on vacation, and to look for his partner and two-year-old son to return to Argentina. .

His mother-in-law says that Gallo had to travel in August, but was suspended after the post-electoral events that took place in Venezuela.

“It was left to ask for your vacation now (…) the desire to hug each other, to meet (…) the feeling won us over,” he maintains, admitting that the conditions in Venezuela are not suitable for traveling.

Countries such as the United States and Uruguay have recommended their compatriots not to travel to Venezuela.

Patricia Bullrich, Minister of Security of Argentina, demanded the release of the gendarme over the weekend and assured that they are working to prevent the situation from becoming a casus belli.

“It threatens us, that will be a cause of war. For God’s sake, declare war on the English who took Las Malvinas from them,” Cabello responded to Bullrich.

The arrest could increase tensions between Caracas and Buenos Aires, which last week denounced at the Organization of American States that the government of Nicolás Maduro continues to harass 6 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 the opposition leader, María Corina Machado, denounced in their first virtual press conference that They face a “high risk” situation.

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.

After questioning the results of the July 28 presidential elections, Venezuela broke diplomatic relations with Argentina, and Brazil assumed its diplomatic representation in Caracas.

Subsequently, the Venezuelan government revoked Brazil’s authorization to represent Argentina’s interests in its territory.

Although it has not disclosed disaggregated results, the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the winner of the July 28 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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