Venezuela issued an international arrest order against President Javier Milei, Presidency Secretary Karina Milei, and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, for allegedly “stealing” a Venezuelan plane. 

The aircraft, which had been stationed in Buenos Aires since 2022, was confiscated by the United States government in February, two months after Milei took office.

Venezuelan General Attorney Tarek Saab announced the arrest orders against the Milei siblings and Bullrich in a press conference on Wednesday in which he called the president “a fascist neonazi” and “plane stealer.”

The three Argentine officials are being accused of aggravated robbery, illegal intervention, false imprisonment, criminal association, and of rendering the plane useless, among other crimes. Saab has also opened a case to investigate potential crimes against humanity committed by Milei’s government

The Venezuelan arrest orders came a day after two Argentine prosecutors issued an international arrest order against Maduro and other Venezuelan officials to investigate torture allegations made by six Venezuelan citizens currently living in Argentina.

Story of a confiscated airplane

In June 2022, a Boeing 747-300 plane from the Venezuelan public air cargo company Emtrasur landed in Buenos Aires to load fuel. Alerted by U.S. authorities that the aircraft could be linked to international terrorism, the Argentine judiciary decided to confiscate the plane. The Venezuelan government had bought the plane from Iranian airline Maham Air, and on board were five Iranian and 14 Venezuelan crew members, who were initially not allowed to step off the plane under suspicion that they could be involved with terrorism.

The plane remained at the Ezeiza International Airport for a year and a half. United States officials had requested to confiscate it shortly after it landed in Buenos Aires, but the Argentine judiciary only accepted their request in February 2024.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry said that the plane case “was solved by the judiciary, an independent branch over which the executive branch has and cannot have any power over, according to international treaties.”

“The Argentine government reminds the Venezuelan regime that in Argentina the power division and the judge’s independence are in place, something which sadly does not happen in Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro’s regime.”

Saab also opened a case to investigate alleged human rights violations Milei and Bullrich may have committed as part of what he called the president’s “chainsaw program that slaughters its victims” with his austerity measures. Saab cited mass layoffs, pension cuts, science, public education and healthcare defunding, and vindicating dictatorship’s crimes, as some of the reasons for the accusation.

“Milei is the main human rights violator in Argentina, after [military junta leader Jorge Rafael] Videla,” Saab said.

He also mentioned the police crackdowns against peaceful demonstrations, especially the more recent ones against people protesting Milei’s veto of a pension increase. He said Milei and Bullrich are carrying out “policies of repression” against social organizations and the elderly.

“We may be witnesses to serious human rights violations that could be considered crimes against humanity,” Saab added, saying the Argentine government is carrying out a “premeditated institutional program of violence” against its citizens.

Maduro, wanted

On Tuesday, Argentine prosecutors Carlos Stornelli and José Agüero Iturbe requested the Buenos Aires Federal Chamber to issue an arrest warrant and investigate Maduro and his right-hand man, Diosdado Cabello, as well as around 30 military officers and intelligence agents for alleged torture, kidnapping, and executions as part of a “systematic plan.”

Six Venezuelans who claim to have suffered tortures in their home country reported this before the Argentine judiciary in an audience on Tuesday, in which Bullrich was present.