An Argentine judge has requested that former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro be extradited on matters related to crimes against humanity.
The warrant, signed by Judge Sebastián Ramos and seen by the Associated Press, reads, “The urgent translation of the international request and the documentation attached thereto is hereby ordered.” Plaintiffs in the case allegedly experienced torture, arbitrary detention, and other abuses under Maduro’s leadership. According to the AP, the warrant asks the United States to hand over Maduro under a 1997 extradition treaty. An Argentine court first issued an international arrest warrant in 2024.
One of the individuals behind the case celebrated the extradition request, calling it an important move “for Argentina, for justice, and above all, for Venezuelan victims who dared to speak out,” the outlet reports.
Maduro pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges last month. According to the indictment against Maduro, Venezuelan leaders have “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States” for over 25 years. Maduro is “at the forefront of that corruption and has partnered with his co-conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.” The indictment states that Maduro “moved loads of cocaine under the protection of Venezuelan law enforcement.”
He also provided “Venezuelan diplomatic passports to drug traffickers and facilitated diplomatic cover for planes used by money launderers to repatriate drug proceeds from Mexico to Venezuela,” the document adds.
