The Argentine government has accused a former ambassador to Venezuela of treason after he arranged for the delivery of a letter to an Argentine military police officer detained on espionage charges.

Officer Nahuel Agustín Gallo was arrested on espionage charges when he entered the Caribbean country on December 8. His family says he was going to visit his Venezuelan partner, who had returned to care for her mother, and their son.

Oscar Laborde, Argentina’s representative in Caracas between 2022 and 2023 during Alberto Fernández’s administration, negotiated with the Venezuelan government to send a letter to Gallo from his family.

“Far from defending the human rights of the ‘disappeared’ officer, what he did was to unduly superimpose himself on the international diplomatic efforts of the Argentine Republic in order to justify the openly criminal conduct of the Venezuelan authorities,” the security ministry wrote in a 16-page complaint filed Thursday.

Officials added that Laborde had initiated negotiations with the Venezuelan government without formal authorization from Argentina.

The case is now in the hands of Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas.

Fernando Soto, the Security Ministry’s National Director of Regulation and Judicial Liaison, told the Herald that Laborde had cast doubts about Gallo’s presence in Venezuela in multiple interviews, fueling Caracas’ theory that the officer was a spy. “He clearly has the decision to favor Maduro’s dictatorship,” Soto said.

Soto added that Laborde’s interview comments that Gallo is faring well “cover up a forced disappearance.” 

“Why is he saying that? He doesn’t know and he says it to cover up for Venezuela. If he does have information, then that’s worse.”

He said that there are no official reports on Gallo’s whereabouts, and that confidential investigations are being carried out by the Ministry of Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“I am sorry that this humanitarian action has been interpreted as trying to humanize the regime,” Laborde said in an interview about the letter with the AM 750 radio station on Thursday.

Laborde explained that he contacted Venezuela’s Attorney General, whom he knew from his tenure as ambassador, with the permission of Gallo’s mother. “The Argentine government had not done anything about the issue,” he said, adding that the administration had not named a lawyer in the case.

Gallo’s family requested his help through social leader and former presidential candidate Juan Grabois.

“The letter was sent at the request of the family, who trusted me — a lawyer specialized in international public law — to ensure it reached him. We fulfilled our objective,” he wrote on X. 

He asked Argentina’s Security Minister Patricia Bullrich to include him in the complaint. “It is perhaps the only issue in which I am willing to collaborate with our authorities for a national objective: the protection of the rights of the military police officer Nahuel Gallo,” he added. Soto said that, while Laborde’s collaboration with the Venezuelan regime is a matter of public record, when it comes to Grabois there is proof only that he is close to Gallo’s family. However, he did not rule out the possibility of amplifying the complaint if new evidence arises.

The Venezuelan government admitted on December 16 to having arrested Gallo, with Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello accusing him of being “on a mission” in the country. Last week, Bullrich claimed that the allegations that he is a spy are “stupid and unserious.”