National Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva says Argentina’s government is in contact with Venezuela over the “illegal detention” of detained security officer Nahuel Gallo because “there is only one objective: that he comes home.”
“Gallo’s situation is deeply painful for his family, for the Gendarmerie [Border Guard(he serves], for the entire government and for all Argentines,” the minister told the La Nación+ television news channel
Gallo was arrested in late 2024 while trying to enter Venezuela by land via its border with Colombia. He was on holiday and travelling to see his Venezuelan partner and their young son.
However, Venezuelan authorities accused Gallo of espionage offences and detained him.
“For over a year, since that December 8, we’ve been working non-stop. There are diplomatic and institutional channels with only one objective: that Nahuel returns,” said Monteoliva, who assumed office last month.
She further pointed out that in all the paperwork to secure the Border Guard’s release, “it is very important to hold back information to see what can be disclosed and what not in cases like these. But at no time is that synonymous with inaction but rather the intention to be prudent.”
Monteoliva said that after the military incursion of the United States in Venezuela and Nicolás Maduro’s capture, “there has been no modification in the conditions in which he [Gallo] has been illegally detained in these last two or three days.”
Gallo remains in solitary confinement in a prison near Caracas, where the conditions of imprisonment are critical, says his partner María Alexandra Gómez.
''Weird feeling'
Gómez said her partner is the victim of “psychological torture” and “constant death threats” within the El Rodeo I prison near the capital. “His human rights are being violated by the degree of violence practised by the guards and authorities,” she said in an interview with the TN news channel.
Earlier this week, marking the 392nd day of her husband’s captivity, Gómez expressed her feelings about Maduro’s ouster and her hopes for the future.
"With Maduro out, I thought that all the prison doors were going to open up but unfortunately that did not happen," lamented Gómez.
Gómez described with a lump in her throat what prevented her from joining the Venezuelan euphoria in the streets of Buenos Aires this week.
"I have a weird feeling – as a Venezuelan I want to celebrate but as a woman and mother I cannot because Nahuel is still not with me," she concluded, reaffirming her commitment not to abandon the struggle until securing the Argentine is returned home.
Bullrich demands
Senate La Libertad Avanza caucus chief Patricia Bullrich on Monday demanded Gallo’s release.
“We want the immediate release of Nahuel Gallo, along with all those illegally detained in Venezuela, as well as [the lawyer] Germán Giuliani,” she stated after attending a celebratory rally with Venezuelan citizens at the Obelisk.
The former National Security minister noted that Gallo “is a member of an Argentine security force who went to visit his son and we were never given any official information” as to his whereabouts.
“We’re going to do everything within our reach to bring him back to Argentina,” said the senator.
Bullrich also mentioned Giuliani, an Argentine lawyer detained in Venezuela by the Maduro government on drug-trafficking charges. His family say they have heard nothing about him since last May.
Sceptical
Bullrich voiced scepticism over the future of Venezuela, now under the hands of interim leader Rodríguez, delcaring: “I cannot believe in any of the Venezuelan narco-dictators.”
“For us everything happening in Venezuela, including the extraction of Maduro, was a very important process showing the capture of a narco-criminal of one of the most brutal cartels which has ever existed,” she pointed out, cheering Washington's intervention.
“This narco-dictatorship had to end and I hope that the United Nations understands it so because they were born after the Second World War to give peace and prosperity to the world and not to cover up dictatorships,” she added.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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