MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina warns against all travel to Venezuela

“It is irrational for one to go into a dictatorship,” Adorni stressed

Following the detention of Border Guard (Gerndarmería Nacional) First Corporal Nahuel Gallo in Venezuela on spying charges, the Argentine Government of President Javier Milei issued a travel advisory Tuesday recommending to avoid all travel to that country where “A dictatorship prevails,” according to Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni.

“We are facing a dictatorship, not a regime or democratic system with shortcomings so we have to run,” Adorni insisted. “The recommendations are because there is a dictatorship that one day can imprison you without any cause and without giving any kind of explanation,” he added in his usual press briefing. “More than a recommendation, it is a truism,” he insisted. “One approaches a cruel dictatorship such as Maduro's or the Chavista regime, and that entails an inherent danger in approaching that dictatorship,” he went on. “It is obvious that visiting a dictatorship implies risk,” he also noted.

“It is irrational for one to go into a dictatorship that has done horrible damage to the Venezuelan people, and in this case Nahuel, who beyond being a gendarme is a husband, a father, an Argentine,” Adorni went on. “One should not get close to dictatorships,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, Milei said that Gallo “was detained by the criminal dictator Nicolás Maduro” and demanded his “immediate release.” The Libertarian leader also pledged to “exhaust all diplomatic channels to return him safe and sound.” The President underlined that Gallo had been arrested “for the only crime of visiting his partner and son.”

During his appearance Tuesday at the Army's Military Academy (Colegio Militar), Milei also stressed that “another of the harmful legacies of the caste has been to fracture the relationship between politics and our beloved Armed Forces”, which “made us lose valuable years in the development of our military capabilities.” Hence, he insisted on putting an end to that “sad page of history” and “write a new one, where our forces have the respect they deserve.”

Gallo lives in Mendoza, where he serves at the Cristo Redentor de Horcones Path bordering Chile. He traveled from Mendoza to Venezuela with a stopover in Colombia to reduce travel costs.