MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela issues arrest warrant against 16 other Argentines in connection with Emtrasur case

Milei is an agent of international Zionism in Latin America, Saab claimed

Venezuela's Public Prosecutor's Office Monday requested the arrest of another 16 Argentines in connection with the Emtrasur Boeing 747-300 freighter airplane seized in Buenos Aires and handed over to the United States during the government of Alberto Fernández for its alleged involvement in logistics support to Iran-backed terrorist activities.

 In addition to President Javier Milei, Presidential Secretary and sister Karina Milei, and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, also wanted in Caracas by the Judiciary are now other politicians, lawmakers, prosecutors, lawyers, and reporters.

“We have requested arrest warrants and red alerts against persons who have acted usurping functions and abusing their power,” said Caracas Chief Prosecutor William Saab. Among those wanted are National Congressmen Gerardo Milman and Ricardo López Murphy, Buenos Aires City Security Minister Waldo Wolff, Judges Federico Villena (who handled the aircraft's case), Carlos Vallefin and Roberto Lemos Arias, Prosecutors Cecilia Incardona and Diego Iglesias, the Buenos Aires Province Deputy Yamil Santoro, Lawyer Leonardo Camicher, and commercial aviation expert Franco Rinaldi.

“Thank you for this medal, dictator Nicolás Maduro,” Rinaldi posted on social media.

“Nicolás Maduro's dictatorship wants to put me in prison for having achieved the arrest of the Venezuelan-Iranian spy plane. For me it is an honor that a murderous and fraudulent government is asking for my head for having thwarted their operations,” Santoro wrote on X.

Saab recalled that Wolff was the president of the Argentine Forum for the Defense of Democracy, which promoted the case against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello. “They use totally unworthy names to mention. It should be 'forum for the defense of international Zionism and Argentine dictatorships that killed and massacred human beings',” he argued.

“What separation of powers can they have when they have Milei as president, who is an agent of international Zionism in Latin America?” Saab also wondered.

Wolff said the Venezuelan measure against him was “the greatest compliment I have received in my life dedicated to the defense of democracy.”

“Judges must be prepared to tolerate all kinds of pressures and overcome all kinds of attacks from political, economic, etc., internal and external powers. It is part of our function. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the attack on the Argentine Judiciary by the Venezuelan State is really worrying,” Villena underlined.

An independent judiciary “is a flag that Argentina in particular and Latin America, in general, must defend to the utmost and in any scenario because an independent justice is the basis of any modern republic and is the one that guarantees the freedom of the people,” he added.