Argentine lawyer detained in Caracas accused of drug-trafficking links
Minister Diosdado Cabello claims that Germán Darío Giuliani was captured at sea while searching for a Serbian drug trafficker wanted by Interpol.
Venezuelan government links Argentine lawyer Giuliani to drug trafficking
The Venezuelan government accused Argentine lawyer Germán Darío Giuliani, detained and held incommunicado for a week in Caracas, of having links to international drug trafficking. This was reported by perfil.com, citing statements by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, made public on Wednesday at a press conference.
Cabello claimed that Giuliani was captured on a sailboat at sea "when he was going to meet a drug trafficker". According to the minister, the alleged trafficker had paid 20,000 dollars to be left at sea, and the Argentine citizen was supposed to receive him. "There are notes about a citizen with the surname Giuliani, captured at sea with some Venezuelans. Whether the gentleman is a good person... but he was going to meet a drug trafficker," Cabello said to official media outlets.
The official identified the alleged drug trafficker as Antum Mrdeza, a Serbian national, with an Interpol red notice and wanted by Italian authorities. Additionally, he displayed a Bulgarian passport in the name of Rumen Aleksandrov, apparently born in 1973, whom he described as another drug trafficker wanted in Europe and also captured in the operation.
"Behind that there is not only drugs, he was detained and is being subjected to interrogations with respect for human rights," added Cabello, without offering further details about the conditions of detention.
The press conference was part of a summary of "counter-terrorist operations" presented by the minister, in which he alleged plans to attack public officials, international observers, candidates, hospitals and diplomatic headquarters during the regional elections on 25 May. Cabello also displayed suitcases with war weapons which, he indicated, were seized before the elections. "In Los Teques we found an arsenal," he said, without detailing the quantity of weapons. "In Zulia they were going to attack polling centres with grenades," he added.
The minister also did not rule out a possible detention of opposition leader María Corina Machado, whom he linked to the alleged terrorist acts. "Everything has its moment in this life, everything, it always comes and comes at the exact moment," he replied when asked about a possible arrest warrant against her. Over the past month and a half, the Venezuelan government detained 70 people on similar charges, many of them foreigners, according to Cabello.
The minister also alluded to the arrest of Juan Pablo Guanipa, a close ally of Machado, which took place two days before the regional elections. Guanipa, 60 years old, had remained in hiding for months; his last recorded public appearance was on 9 January, when he accompanied Machado at an event rejecting the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro for a third term.
"What they were trying to do is very serious. It is very serious that the Venezuelan right is using violence as a way to seek power," said Cabello, according to the Ansa Agency.
The political context in Venezuela has remained tense since the July presidential elections, in which the opposition denounces fraud and claims victory for candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, currently in exile. The Venezuelan National Electoral Council did not publish the disaggregated results required by law, arguing a hack of its systems.
Source: Google News VE — Caracas