Argentina described this Tuesday as “an almost act of war” he “kidnapping” of an Argentine gendarme in Venezuela and demanded his release, after Caracas confirmed the arrest of the first corporal for supposedly having gone “to fulfill a mission.
“We took it as almost an act of war because a person took us saying he was a spy when he was really a citizen who went to visit his family.”Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told local radio station RadioRivadavia this Tuesday.
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For his part, Argentine Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein told Radio Miter that “illicitly kidnapping an Argentine citizen who is going to visit his family already crosses all limits…We demand the immediate release of the gendarme,” he added.
What happened between Argentina and Venezuela?
On Friday the Argentine Foreign Ministry announced that Nahuel Agustín Gallo, first corporal of the Argentine National Gendarmerie (GNA) 33 years old, had been arrested in Venezuela after entering from Colombia to visit his partner and their son, who turns two in January.
The woman, María Gómez, told the local press that she has been in Puerto La Cruz (eastern Venezuela) with the child “for personal reasons” for seven months and that she last contacted Gallo on December 8. “We are all distraught,” he told the radio on Monday.
Venezuela’s Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, also acknowledged on Monday that the gendarme had been arrested, without giving details.
“What did I come to do in Venezuela? (…) I came to fulfill a mission”he expressed in a press conference; andthose are “lies to justify the illicit kidnapping of an Argentine compatriot,” accused the Argentine foreign minister.
Bullrich said that the Venezuelan government is “taking hostages, kidnapping people with the aim of negotiating safe passage from this regime,” Bullrich added.
Werthein also denounced that the Argentine embassy in Caracas has “snipers in front”, all the streets blocked and “difficulties in feeding these gentlemen who have been asylum” since March, in reference to the six collaborators of the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado who are refugees in the diplomatic headquarters.
Last Friday, the Argentine Foreign Ministry also condemned the “arbitrary and unjustified detention” of a local employee of the Argentine embassy in Caracas, whom Bullrich identified as a driver entering and leaving the building.
The Argentine government on Saturday recommended its citizens avoid or postpone trips to Venezuela.
The embassy of the Argentine Republic It has been guarded by Brazil since August 1, after Venezuela broke relations with the South American country over its position on the disputed July 28 elections in which Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed re-elected president amid allegations of fraud.