BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine judge on Wednesday requested the extradition from the United States of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by the U.S. military last month and now faces federal charges of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine in New York.
The inquiry from Argentina, whose judges have aggressively pursued cases of human rights abuse beyond its borders, accuses Maduro of committing crimes against humanity in overseeing a harsh crackdown on protesters and political opponents as president.
“The urgent translation of the international request and the documentation attached to it is hereby ordered,” said the warrant, which was signed by Argentine federal judge Sebastián Ramos and seen by The Associated Press.
The plaintiffs include Venezuelans who suffered torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, among other abuses, at the hands of Venezuelan security forces and intelligence agents.
The case, presented in Buenos Aires in 2023 by human rights organizations representing the victims, depends on the principle of universal jurisdiction, a legal concept that allows the prosecution in Argentina of anyone from any country who commits crimes such as genocide or terrorism anywhere in the world.
Argentina’s foreign ministry must now present the request to the Trump administration, which is unlikely to comply as Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores await trial in a Brooklyn jail on charges they worked with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States over a 25-year period.
Despite this, one of the organizations that brought the case praised the request as an important step “for Argentina, for justice, and above all, for the victims of Venezuela who dared to speak.”
“Beyond this specific resolution, there is still the satisfaction of standing before the strong, who fiercely defend human rights,” wrote the Argentine Forum for the Defense of Democracy.
In asking the United States to hand over Maduro to Argentina, the warrant cites the 1997 extradition treaty between the countries and acknowledges Maduro’s recent capture.
An Argentine court issued for the first time an international arrest warrant for Maduro in 2024. After the US military operation that ousted Maduro on January 3, Argentine federal prosecutors asked Judge Ramos to request extradition for the investigation of crimes against humanity.
As one of the few countries whose law allows the investigation of cases of crimes against humanity beyond its borders, Argentina has increasingly taken center stage in cases ranging from the torture of dissidents under the Franco dictatorship in Spain to atrocities committed by the military against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei, the region’s most prominent right-wing leader and an ally of President Donald Trump, welcomed Maduro’s capture by the US military.