Milei demands “immediate release” of Argentine officer detained in Venezuela

Argentine President Javier Milei demanded on Tuesday the immediate release of a member of the Gendarmerie, an internal security force of the southern country, who was detained by Venezuela when he wanted to enter the Caribbean country from Colombia.

Argentine gendarme Nahuel Gallo was arrested on December 8 when he had entered Venezuela through a land border crossing in order to visit relatives in the town of Táchira.

“He was detained by the security forces in charge of the criminal dictator Nicolás Maduro, for the sole crime of visiting his partner and his son,” Milei said at an event at the Military College.

“We demand his immediate release and we will exhaust all diplomatic channels to return him safely to Argentina,” he concluded.

Both leaders, exponents of the extreme poles of the Latin American political arc, have maintained hard confrontations in which they have criticized and insulted each other.

“The gendarme who wanted to infiltrate our country is being prosecuted with full respect for the rule of law and Venezuelan justice, stop despairing and assume the consequences of his conduct that shames the noble Argentine people,” said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil in his Telegram account.

“The madmen who govern Argentina, the political absurdity of Milei and Patricia Bullrich, were discovered red-handed trying to introduce violent elements into Venezuela” and added: “They have made a serious mistake and have left countless physical evidence along the way that commit them to a terrorist plan.

After the arrest, the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded the immediate release of Gallo, as did the head of the Ministry of Security, Patricia Bullrich, the portfolio on which the Argentine Gendarmerie depends.

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