The Argentine justice system requested the United States on Wednesday to extradite the deposed president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduroto be investigated in a case for crimes against humanity, according to a judicial resolution accessed by AFP.
Maduro is detained in New York after being extracted from Caracas in a United States military raid in the early hours of January 3.
An Argentine judge issued an “international appeal to the United States of America on Wednesday, in order to request the extradition of Nicolás Maduro Moros” to be investigated within the framework of an investigation for crimes against humanity under the principle of “universal jurisdiction.”
In 2024, the Argentine justice system had requested the international capture of then-president Nicolás Maduro in this case, derived from two complaints made by the George and Amal Clooney Foundation (CFJ, in English) and, separately, the Argentine Forum for the Defense of Democracy (FADD).
In 2023, the two organizations denounced the Venezuelan government for human rights violations before the Argentine justice system, citing the principle of universal jurisdiction. Both complaints were later consolidated into a single case.
The Argentine justice system determined the existence of “a systematic plan of repression, forced disappearance of people, torture, homicides and persecution against a portion of the civilian population” from 2014 “to the present” and issued arrest warrants to investigate Maduro and his Minister of the Interior and number two of Chavismo, Diosdado Hair.
On other occasions, the Argentine justice system applied universal jurisdiction. In 2021, it opened an investigation into accusations of crimes by the Burmese military against the Muslim minority and, in 2022, it initiated a criminal investigation against the Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega.
Maduro was captured by US forces in an operation that included bombings of Caracas and other neighboring regions. Delcy Rodriguezhis vice president, assumed power on an interim basis and governs under pressure from the United States.
The former Venezuelan president is accused of drug trafficking and terrorism by the US justice system and his next hearing is scheduled for March 17 in New York.
