The case of the Argentine gendarme arrested in Venezuela on charges of espionage continues to escalate the tension between the two countries. On Friday, the Venezuelan Public Ministry confirmed it officially pressed charges against officer Nahuel Gallo for alleged “destabilizing and terrorist actions.” It also said it will investigate Argentine Security and Foreign Ministers, Patricia Bullrich and Gerardo Werthein.

“Argentine citizen Nahuel Gallo is subject to a criminal proceeding due to the existence of evidence that compromises him in serious acts that threaten the security of the nation,” Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab said in a statement. 

The communiqué added that “the Argentine government’s erratic behavior” on the matter proved “its link with this aggression against Venezuela, which was defused.” 

“Given the incriminating statements issued by Minister Burlich (sic) and Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein, these officials have been identified as persons of interest in the investigation and will therefore be included in the case.”

In the statement, Saab went on to say that Bullrich “must answer to the Argentine people and to Gallo’s relatives” on why she authorized the trip of the military police officer without informing the Venezuelan authorities. Gallo was arrested on December 8 while trying to cross into Venezuela from Colombia. According to his family, however, he was there to visit his partner — who is Venezuelan and went back home months ago to care for her mother — and his son.

According to Saab, the move set “a serious precedent in the region.” He also mentioned that in March, Bullrich said she would send eight military police officers to protect eight members of the Venezuelan opposition who were living in the Argentine embassy in Caracas after requesting political asylum. At the time, Bullrich claimed that those officers could not be sent as President Nicolás Maduro had not authorized the trip.

Bullrich responded to Saab, calling him the “chief prosecutor of a murderous narco-dictatorship.” 

“Argentine Nahuel Gallo is the victim of a political kidnapping, and you, a mafioso of the Maduro regime, are the real criminal,” Bullrich wrote in a post on X. “You do not intimidate us. You will fall, and when you do, you will face justice for your crimes against humanity. There will be no corner of the world where you can hide,” she added.