Footage allegedly showing Argentine gendarme Nahuel Gallo in detention in Venezuela has surfaced online. At least four videos of only a few seconds each show the military policeman in light blue garments walking in front of a stand-like structure and a fence in the background. He has short hair and appears to be in good health. In one of the recordings, he is seen with two other men dressed in the same kind of prison attire. 

This is the first time that the military policeman has been seen since his arrest on December 8 while entering the country by land. Gallo’s partner María Alexandra Gómez seemed to confirm the authenticity of the images. “It’s him; they’re criminals,” she told Argentine media outlet Infobae. 

The footage was apparently leaked by the Venezuelan government to a number of foreign correspondents covering the country. Journalist Juan Diego Quesada, who reports on Venezuela and Colombia for Spanish outlet El País, posted the videos on X saying he had received them from a “high government source.” They were allegedly filmed on January 2, but there is no confirmation as to where or when the videos were done. No one from the Maduro administration has made any official comments on the images. 

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich posted the video on X, saying that the “Maduro dictatorship” had released a video of Gallo. 

“RETURN HIM TO HIS HOMELAND NOW,” she added in all caps.

In an interview with Radio Mitre on Friday, Bullrich called the footage a “farce” and demanded that Gallo be “placed on a plane and sent back” to Argentina.

“Showing that he is well is not a required condition, as if they were a normal regime,” she said. “This is a dictatorship, and dictatorships do these kinds of things; they give a proof of life.” 

Argentina files complaint with the ICC

The footage was released on the same day that the Argentine government filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against Venezuela over the case. 

The foreign ministry released a communiqué on Thursday calling Gallo’s arrest an “arbitrary detention and forced disappearance.” The statement added that the detention “constitutes a grave and flagrant violation of human rights, evidencing a systematic pattern of crimes against humanity” committed in Venezuela.

Argentina’s complaint before the ICC is particularly aimed at Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab, who had a feud with Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich over Gallo’s case last week.

Saab announced that the public ministry he heads would investigate Bullrich and Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein over an alleged plot against Venezuela of which Gallo is being accused of being part of.

Tensions between Argentina and Venezuela over Gallo’s case have escalated since the detention of the military policeman at a border crossing. The Venezuelan government accused him of being “on a mission” in the country, while Gallo’s relatives say he was visiting his partner and son. The Milei administration insisted that Gallo had been legally authorized to enter the country, while Caracas claimed that he was not.

Bullrich called Saab the “chief prosecutor of a murderous narcodictatorship.” Recent tensions over the case included the Argentine government accusing one of its former ambassadors to Venezuela, Oscar Laborde, of treason after he arranged for the delivery of a letter to Gallo.