NGOs ask Argentine court to seek extradition of Nicolás Maduro

Plaintiffs in an Argentine case investigating crimes against humanity have asked a federal court to formally seek the extradition of Venezuela’s captured leader Nicolás Maduro, according to court filings seen by AFP and Noticias Argentinas.

The request, submitted on January 4 by Argentine non-governmental organisations representing Venezuelan victims, urges the court to “seek the immediate extradition of Nicolás Maduro Moros” to Argentina, Caliber.Az reports via Buenos Aires Times. 

The filing builds on a September 2024 decision by Argentina’s Federal Appeals Court, which ordered Maduro’s international arrest for extradition purposes. The court ruled he should be questioned as part of an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows national courts to prosecute serious international crimes regardless of where they were committed.

The plaintiffs argue that Argentina has constitutional authority to pursue the case under Article 118 of the country’s constitution, which permits domestic courts to try crimes that affect humanity as a whole.

Maduro is expected to appear before a judge in New York at noon on January 5, where he faces separate US charges related to drug trafficking and terrorism. 

The Argentine arrest warrants stem from two complaints filed in 2023: one by the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) and another by the Foro Argentino por la Defensa de la Democracia (Argentine Forum for the Defence of Democracy, FADD). Both organisations accused the Venezuelan government of serious human rights violations and invoked universal jurisdiction. The two cases were later merged.

Argentina’s judiciary has concluded there is evidence of “a systematic plan of repression, forced disappearance of persons, torture, killings and persecution against a segment of the civilian population,” allegedly carried out from at least 2014 to the present. Arrest warrants were issued to question Maduro as well as Venezuela’s Interior and Justice Minister, Diosdado Cabello.

By Sabina Mammadli