The president of Argentina, Javier Milei.

The Criminal Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela agreed to request a preventive measure of freedom against the president of Argentina, Javier Milei and two high officials, including his sister, Karina Milei.

The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela agreed this Monday to request a custodial measure against the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, and two officials of his government, at the request of the Venezuelan Public Ministry (MP).

Venezuela's Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, announced last week that, based on international law, a criminal investigation was opened against Milei; the Secretary General of the Presidency of Argentina, Karina Milei, and Patricia Bullrich, Minister of Security of Argentina, for the commission of alleged crimes against humanity and for the “theft” of a plane owned by the Venezuelan State.

The announcement occurred after the Argentine government asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest President Nicolás Maduro.

A Venezuelan State plane that was detained in Argentina during the government of former president Alberto Fernández, and that the US justice system seized for allegedly having violated “sanctions and export laws” and maintaining links with terrorism, was transferred to the United States at the beginning of this year. United States, where it was disabled.

The Boeing 747, acronym YV3531, operated by the Venezuelan company Emtrasur, a subsidiary of the state-owned Conviasa, which was previously owned by the Iranian airline Mahan Air, was immobilized in Argentina since June 2022. Its crew, made up of 14 Venezuelans and 5 Iranians , were momentarily detained, subjected to an investigation and later released.

The Venezuelan prosecutor's office is investigating the three Argentine officials for the alleged commission of “aggravated robbery, money laundering, illegitimate deprivation of liberty, simulation of a punishable act, illicit interference, deactivation of an aircraft and association to commit a crime.”

Last week, Venezuelan victims, representatives of the Argentine Forum for the Defense of Democracy (FADD) and the Prosecutor's Office of that country, requested that the arrest of Maduro and other officials of his government be ordered, in the midst of a case opened by alleged crimes against humanity committed in Venezuelan territory on the basis of the principle of universal human rights jurisdiction.

In the middle of last year, the Argentine federal prosecutor, Carlos Stornelli, charged fourteen Venezuelan soldiers with having committed alleged crimes against humanity during the anti-government demonstrations of 2014, based on a complaint filed by the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ, for its acronym in English), taking into account the jurisprudence of Argentina on Human Rights.

Argentina is the first State to formally request the ICC to issue arrest warrants against Maduro and senior officials for the alleged commission of crimes against humanity.

During the Fernández government, Argentina withdrew from the joint lawsuit, but in July of this year, the Milei government announced that it had asked the ICC to rejoin the complaint.

In 2021, the ICC prosecutor's office announced its decision to open a formal investigation into Venezuela for alleged crimes against humanity that according to the Venezuelan State have never existed.