NGO, prosecutors in Argentina ask courts to order Maduro's arrest

A non-governmental organisation backed by several lawmakers in Argentina on Tuesday asked Argentina’s courts to order the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and several officials from his government as part of a case over crimes against humanity.

The request was made by Tomás Farini Duggan, a lawyer for the Foro Argentino por la Defensa de la Democracia (Argentine Forum for the Defence of Democracy, FADD) and federal prosecutors Carlos Stornelli and José Agüero Iturbe.

They asked for an arrest warrant to be issued against Maduro, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and 30 military officers and intelligence agents accused of alleged crimes against humanity, FADD said in a press release shared with the AFP news agency.

The allegations include torture, kidnappings and executions, carried out as part of a “systematic plan” to maintain control of Venezuela.

A legal complaint was first filed before Argentina’s federal courts in January 2023. It is based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows countries to prosecute serious human rights violations irrespective of where they are committed, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator or victim.

Judges Pablo Bertuzzi, Leopoldo Bruglia and Mariano Llorens heard a request seeking the arrest of the accused, delivered in response to an earlier ruling by Judge Sebastián Ramos previously denying the request. The request seeks the annulment of the ruling.

On Tuesday itself, at least five Venezuelan citizens testified before Bertuzzi, Bruglia and Llorens, detailing claims of persecution, arbitrary arrests, forced disappearance and torture by Maduro’s government.

National Security Minister Patricia Bullrich was present for the hearing at the Buenos Aires court, along with Buenos Aires City Security Minister Waldo Wolff, one of the driving forces behind the legal push.

Earlier this month, via a Foreign Ministry statement, President Javier Milei’s government said it would ask the International Criminal Court to issue an international warrant for the arrest of Maduro and several top Venezuelan government officials. 

It accused the Venezuelan government of perpetrating crimes against humanity since the disputed July election that returned Maduro for another six-year term as president.

On Tuesday, Stornelli and Agüero Iturbe highlighted that Venezuela’s Judiciary “is at the service of Maduro’s regime and it does not act independently,” the FADD’s press release said, arguing in favour of Argentina’s courts shifting its stance.

On Tuesday, United Nations human rights experts reported an “intensification of the repressive apparatus” in Venezuela, describing “a consistent and coordinated plan to silence, discourage and repress opposition to the government.”

Maduro was proclaimed re-elected by the national’s electoral authorities in July, winning a third consecutive six-year term (2025-2031). 

The opposition presented its own figures based on polling station-level counts which it says proves its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, won by a landslide.

Maduro’s proclamation was dismissed by the United States, the European Union (EU) and several countries in Latin America, including Argentina. President Milei was one of the first to recognise González Urrutia as the winner of the vote.

Maduro has managed to cling to power despite sanctions stepped up after his 2018 reelection, also dismissed as a sham by dozens of countries.

At least 27 people have died in incidents related to protests since the disputed election. Some 2,400 have been arrested, according to Caracas.

– TIMES/AFP