Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Tuesday that Nahuel Gallo, the Argentine gendarme arrested in her country, is being held hostage by Nicolás Maduro’s government. The previous day, Maduro had accused Gallo of being part of a plot to assassinate his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez.

“We understand that the dynamics of [the Venezuelan] regime has been the use of hostages as blackmail,” Machado said in an online press conference on Tuesday. “Many other countries also have prisoners in Venezuela and they are used to inhibit their respective governments from pointing out and denouncing the abuses that occur in Venezuela.”

Machado said she had been in contact with Argentine President Javier Milei and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, whom she described as “great friends,” stating that the government was “very brave” and “very clear about the nature of the regime we are facing.”

She also said the Argentine embassy in Caracas, which has been in the custody of Brazilian diplomatic personnel since August, is under attack. Six members of Machado’s opposition party have requested political asylum in Argentina and remain confined to the embassy, since the Maduro government has not offered them safe conduct out of the country. 

“The regime has tried to break their morale, psychologically and even physically torturing people who are critical to our teams,” she said of the aides in the embassy.

Tensions between Venezuela and Argentina have escalated since the Maduro administration arrested Gallo in early December after accusing him of espionage. Gallo’s family say he traveled to the country to visit his partner and their son.

On Monday, during a government meeting, Maduro said the Argentine government and Gallo were involved in “violent plans to attack the peace in Venezuela.” He added that the intelligence services had captured “125 mercenaries of almost 15 nationalities” who allegedly entered the country to carry out terrorist attacks. He didn’t offer further details, claiming that it was not appropriate to do so.

Maduro also questioned Gallo’s relatives’ account of why he traveled to Venezuela. “It is a lie that [he] had a girlfriend here, a lover, no, no, that gentleman has his wife and family in Argentina,” he added.

“Some people cried out, like the Argentines. I had not said it but now I can say it: we were waiting for those people. Thank God we have good intelligence,” he said.

“They were coming from the south of America with specific plans to try to attack Delcy [Rodríguez].” 

Bullrich answered Maduro, calling him a liar. “Accusing Nahuel Gallo of a ridiculous plot without evidence only exposes the desperation of your murderous regime, which is coming to an end,” she posted on X, urging him to release Gallo immediately.

Maduro is set to take office on January 10 after a controversial election in which the National Electoral Council declared him the winner without offering supporting evidence. The opposition set up a parallel vote count that they say proves that Urrutia was the true victor.

On Saturday, the Argentine President met with exiled Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia in Casa Rosada. Milei called González Urrutia, who claims to have defeated Maduro in the elections, Venezuela’s “president-elect.” González Urrutia announced that he would go back to Venezuela to “take office.”

Two days later, González Urrutia said that his son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, was “kidnapped” while taking his children, ages 6 and 7, to school.

“He was intercepted by hooded men, dressed in black, they put him in a gold-colored van, license plate AA54E2C, and took him away. He is currently missing,” he wrote on X on Tuesday afternoon.