Government files habeas corpus against Venezuela's arrest warrant for Milei

Officials in Argentina have filed a pre-emptive habeas corpus writ before the federal courts in response to the issuing of an arrest warrant against President Javier Milei and several members of his government.

Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona, and Treasury Attorney Rodolfo Barra filed the document with the federal courts last Thursday.

Venezuela's justice system last month authorised the issuing of an international arrest warrant by Nicolás Maduro’s government against President Milei and other members of the Cabinet, from presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, as well as several judicial officials and lawmakers.

Both officials filed the claim in Federal Courts, and the petition has been left to federal judge Julián Ercolini, the Noticias Argentinas news agency reported citing court sources.

A habeas corpus writ impels a judge or court to bring a person who is detained before the court so the legality of that person's detention can be assessed.

The writ was pushed by the La Libertad Avanza administration in response to what officials described as “a current, imminent and certain threat” to the freedom of President Milei and his officials. 

The warrant was issued over the "theft" of a Venezuelan plane seized in Buenos Aires for alleged sanctions violations. But it is only symbolic as Milei is unlikely to set foot in this country, where the warrant applies.

The cargo plane owned by Venezuelan company Emtrasur was confiscated after landing in Argentina in June 2022, before Milei took office.

An Argentine judge then granted a request for the United States to seize the plane on grounds that laws were broken when Iran sold it to Venezuela. Both countries are under US sanctions.

The 19-member crew was composed of Venezuelans and Iranians – one of whom the United States suspected had links to the Al Quds Force, a group of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards classified as a terrorist organization by the United States.

All the crew were initially detained but later allowed to leave.

'Political purpose'

Argentine officials said in their filing with the local courts that the orders issued against state officials have a “political purpose,” given they were not allowed to participate in the Venezuelan court proceedings.

The writ asks `Ercolini to admit the habeas corpus request. 

“The accusations, based on falsehoods and completely baseless, attest to an attempt to intimidate by a court system which is not independent and serves a dictatorship,” read a Justice Ministry statement. 

The arrest warrant affects Javier Milei, Patricia Bullrich, Karina Milei and several members of the Judiciary (Federico Villena, Carlos Vallefin, Roberto Lemos Arias, Pablo Bertuzzi, Leopoldo Bruglia and Mariano Llorens). Prosecutors are also named (Carlos Stornelli, Diego Iglesias, José Luis Agüero Iturbe and Cecilia Incardona) along with several deputies, both national and local (Ricardo López Murphy, Gerardo Milman, City – Waldo Wolff and Yamil Santoro), as well as private individuals (María Eugenia Talerico, Franco Rinaldi and Leonardo Camicher).

The Justice Ministry defined the manoeuvre as an “arbitrary attack, motivated by solely political reasons,” which would imply “a direct threat to the personal freedom of Argentine officials, seriously violating the rights protected under the Constitution and international human rights agreements to which Argentine adheres."

“From this government, we will not allow any foreign dictatorship to infringe on the freedom of our compatriots. The protection of freedom and rights of Argentines is non-negotiable, and we will not give in to authoritarian pressures,” said the portfolio in a statement. , they specified in the Ministry of Justice.

“The risk of personal freedom” for officials “is directly linked to the public work they perform as representatives of the State,” and thus “it affects the exercise of their mandate” leaving them exposed “in an unjust and arbitrary manner to a risk of freedom deprivation,” it concluded.

– TIMES/PERFIL