BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — An Argentine judge on Wednesday requested the extradition from the United States of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by the U.S. military last month and now faces federal charges of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine in New York.
The inquest from Argentina, whose judges have aggressively pursued human rights abuse cases beyond its borders, accuses Maduro of having committed crimes against humanity in overseeing a harsh crackdown on protesters and political opponents as president.
“The urgent translation of the international request and the documentation attached thereto is hereby ordered,” said the warrant, which was signed by Argentine federal judge Sebastián Ramos and seen by The Associated Press.
Plaintiffs include Venezuelans who suffered torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, among other abuses, at the hands of Venezuelan security forces and intelligence agents.
The case, filed in Buenos Aires in 2023 by human rights organizations representing the victims, relies on the principle of universal jurisdiction, a legal concept that allows for the prosecution in Argentina of anyone from any country who commits crimes like genocide or terrorism anywhere in the world.
Argentina’s foreign ministry must now present the request to the Trump administration, which is unlikely to comply as Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores await trial in a Brooklyn jail on charges that they worked with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S over a 25-year period.
Even so, one of the organizations that filed the case hailed the request as an important milestone “for Argentina, for justice, and above all, for Venezuelan victims who dared to speak out.”
“Beyond this specific resolution, there remains the satisfaction of having stood up to the powerful, fiercely defending human rights,” wrote the Argentine Forum for the Defense of Democracy.
In asking the U.S. to hand Maduro over to Argentina, the warrant cites the 1997 extradition treaty between the countries and acknowledges Maduro’s recent capture.
An Argentine court first issued an international arrest warrant for Maduro in 2024. Following the U.S. military operation that ousted Maduro on Jan. 3, Argentine federal prosecutors asked Judge Ramos to request the extradition for the crimes-against-humanity investigation.
As one of just a handful of countries whose law permits the investigation of crimes-against-humanity cases beyond its borders, Argentina has increasingly taken center stage in lawsuits ranging from the torture of dissidents under Franco’s dictatorship in Spain to atrocities committed by the military against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
President Javier Milei of Argentina, the region’s most prominent right-wing leader and ally of President Donald Trump, has cheered the U.S. military seizure of Maduro.