The Argentine gendarme Nahuel Agustín Gallo (first corporal, 33 years old) tried to enter Venezuela on December 8, 2024 from one of the international bridges that connect the Caribbean country with Colombia: he had left from Mendoza, where he had his assigned tasks, and intended to reach Caracas, where he He was waiting for his partner to spend the holidays. Since that day, he remains kidnapped by order of the authorities of the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduroaccused without proof against him, of having a “criminal plan under the guise of a sentimental visit”.
Almost a month has passed and no one knows where Gallo is. Days before the elected president Edmundo González Urrutia lands in Argentina, in order to visit Javier Milei this Saturday, the Venezuelan government contributed photos and two videos which serve as proof of life: the gendarme is seen walking, dressed in light blue; In one he walks alone, inside a prison but outdoors, and in the other, in the same circumstances, but accompanied by two men. He is skinny, with short hair and a long beard.
“We are not used to seeing it like this, very downcast and frustrated. Those of us who know Nahuel know that he is not doing this of his own free will,” he said. Maria Alexandra Gomezhis wife, upon seeing the images. It is unknown in which prison he is being held, but she told him Infobae who believes that “It could be the El Rodeo prison” since, through the satellite photos of Google Maps, the tribune under which the Argentine would walk in the videos is identified.
Galló, born in Catamarca, left the country with permission from the authoritiesfrom the National Gendarmerie. He carried out his duties as a non-commissioned officer in the province of Mendoza. According to his brother Kevin, he had already worked assigned in Buenos Aires and Chubut. I wanted to take advantage of the vacation from work to visit Gómez, his partner, and his almost two-year-old son, who had already been in Venezuela for seven months for family health reasons.
Gallo left Argentina for Chile in his personal car and from Santiago he took a plane to Bogotá, Colombia. From there he traveled by bus to Cúcuta, a border city that joins Venezuela through the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge. And he wanted to cross aboard a taxi to the city of Ureña, in the state of Táchira.
However, the Venezuelan authorities withheld his personal documents and cell phone and then detained him. A few days later, the chancellor of Venezuela, Yvan Gilstated that Nahuel wanted to “infiltrate” the country and even that the Milei government.
On December 13, five days after Gallo’s kidnapping, the national Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Security issued a joint statement expressing their “stronger rejection of arbitrary and unjustified detention” and they “categorically and immediately” demanded his release.
“Despite the strictly personal nature of his visit, he was immediately detained, without any legitimate reason and in open violation of his fundamental rights,” the statement said.
The news spread quickly and generated controversy even within the government. The vice president Victoria Villarruel posted a criticism of Patricia Bullrich: “I would never have authorized a gendarme to go to Venezuela.”
The Minister of Security responded immediately and through the same social media channel: “It is shameful that he uses Nahuel Gallo to gather likesand also delete the tweet when the impact is not what was expected. “Argentines no longer tolerate cowardice or political opportunism.”
During his visit to Tucumán, President Javier Milei himself, who had said that it was an “illegal kidnapping,” met with relatives of the gendarme. The governor of Catamarca, Raúl Jalil, confirmed it in a post on X: “The president expressed his support at this distressing moment and stressed that all diplomatic efforts are being made. and legal to demand the release of Nahuel, who is detained in Venezuela.”
Days later, the Mendoza Justice issued a habeas corpus to demand Gallo’s release. And the Brazilian government admitted that it had begun diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue. None of that was successful. The former ambassador during the Kirchner government, Oscar Laborde, also tried, which earned him a complaint from Patricia Bullrich for “betrayal of the Homeland” since the minister considered that he acted “against the official diplomatic management.” On December 27, Bullrich received Gallo’s relatives.
After prosecuting him for “terrorism,” Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saabassured in an interview given to Infobae on December 31 that Gallo entered “illegally” to Venezuela “without even respecting the minimum in terms of formality that implies that a security agent visits a nation, being a foreigner, taking bilateral coordination as a minimum rule, in this case between Argentina and Venezuela. So much so that the vice president of Argentina herself (Victoria Villarruel), in a public, notorious and communication manner, expressed her rejection to the way in which Minister (Patricia) Bullrich allowed, sponsored and promoted the entry of the Argentine gendarme.
“The telephone extractions carried out on the Argentine gendarme have revealed his participation in conspiratorial actions against the republican peace. Therefore, it is processed. Given his constitutional guarantees, he is in good health,” said Saab. A few days before, in the context of the prosecution, a statement from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Venezuela had assured that “The statements and actions carried out by the Argentine government make clear the complicity of the authorities of that Nation in subversive plans”.
Bullrich responded to the phrases of the Venezuelan prosecutor, whom he called a “criminal” and considered: “It is one lie after another. They gather hostages to protect themselves from their own fears. Countries where people live in freedom do not need to collect hostages.”
On January 1, 2025, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued Resolution 1/2025, which considered that “Gallo is in a serious and urgent situation, with risk of irreparable damage to his rights.”
And he asked Venezuela to adopt urgent measures to protect the life and personal integrity of Gallo: inform if he is in state custody and under what circumstances, if he was presented before a court to resolve his situation, the reasons why he has not yet been been released, and that the gendarme be allowed to communicate with his family, legal representatives and Argentine authorities.
The next day Argentina also requested precautionary measures from the IACHR for Gallo considering that there is a “imminent risk to the life and integrity of Gallo”.
That same day, the Argentine Foreign Ministry reported in a statement that it filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) “for the arbitrary detention and forced disappearance of the Argentine citizen Nahuel Gallo.”
“This fact constitutes a serious and flagrant violation of human rights, evidencing a systematic pattern of crimes against humanity that are being committed in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which are clearly under the jurisdiction of the ICC.”
Minister Bullrich published the statement on her X account and wrote: “We denounce from our Foreign Ministry before the International Criminal Court the Maduro regime for the forced disappearance of our gendarme Nahuel Gallo. Imprescriptible crime for the authors. “We are not going to allow the regime to take Nahuel hostage.”
The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) That same day, he condemned Gallo’s arrest and described it as a “crime against humanity” within the framework of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
In an official statement, the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, stated that Gallo’s detention represents a flagrant violation of international norms, including the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, as he was held incommunicado and deprived of consular and legal assistance. “These events are further proof of the systematic violation of fundamental human rights by the Venezuelan regime”he highlighted.
And he demanded “that the Venezuelan regime comply with international treaties and agreements on human rights and international relations; that certifies and guarantees your physical security; that provides guarantees of legal assistance and contact with his family; and to immediately release Nahuel Gallo.”
The communication occurred at the same time that the Venezuelan government released the videos of Gallo in apparent good health. Immediately, Bullrich considered the exhibition of the images a “pantomime.”
“We do not accept any game of an appearance, of a photo, that appears in an unknown place, walking, without sound and without a date,” said the minister in dialogue with Radio Mitre. And he added: “There is no condition to show that they have it well, as if it were a normal regime, This is a dictatorship and dictatorships do these things, they give proof of life”.
