MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maduro claims Argentine NCO targeted VP Delcy Rodríguez

“God guard her and God has guarded her,” the Bolivarian leader stressed about Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed Monday that Argentine Border Guard (Gendarmería Nacional) First Corporal Nahuel Gallo who has been detained and charged with espionage intended to kill Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. “God guard her and God has guarded her,” the Bolivarian leader stressed while insisting that Javier Milei's Libertarian administration was behind it all because it was not true that Gallo had a romantic partner and a child in Venezuela. “That gentleman has his wife in Argentina,” Maduro argued.

“Thanks to intelligence work, it was learned of the arrival of mercenaries from the South of America with the intention of making an attempt against the life of the Executive Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez,” Maduro underlined.

“During the Christmas season, the Venezuelan military and police worked to maintain peace and integrity in every community of the country and now we can say that we have captured 125 mercenaries of 15 different nationalities who were planning to execute terrorist actions in Venezuela,” he also pointed out.

“I am proud of the military and police personnel, because they have guaranteed peace and tranquility to our country, in the face of national and international fascist threats. I am proud of you, men and women in uniform, guard up and ready for permanent combat!,” the Chavista head of State added.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello confirmed that 125 “mercenaries” had been arrested in Venezuela for plotting against Maduro. He made those remarks four days ahead of Maduro's inauguration for a third consecutive six-year term after the controversial July 28, 2024, elections which Edmundo González Urrutia of the opposition Unitarian Democratic Platform (PUD) also claims to have won, and announced he too would be taking his oath of office on Friday.

Cabello said these “mercenaries” from Colombia, the United States, Peru, Spain, Italy, Uruguay, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Lebanon, Albania, The Netherlands, Israel, Argentina, Guyana, and Yemen responded to disenfranchised opposition leader María Corina Machado. There were also Venezuelan nationals among those arrested, Cabello reckoned. He also claimed they were funded through drug trafficking and narco-paramilitarism by former Colombian Presidents Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque. “It is the financing that Mrs. María Corina Machado receives from terrorist groups that want to lead Venezuela to chaos,” he argued.

Following Maduro's statements, Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich replied that his lies would “not save you.” Gallo's alleged plan to kill Rodríguez was -in Bullrich's words- a “ridiculous plot.”

“Accusing Nahuel Gallo of a ridiculous plot without evidence only exposes the desperation of your murderous regime, which is coming to an end,” Bullrich also warned on X.