Who are the 4 Argentine nationals still held in Venezuelan prisons?

As the Venezuelan government, currently led by interim President Delcy Rodríguez, continues to release political prisoners, hundreds are still being held in jails and detention centers across the country, including four Argentine men. Nahuel Gallo, Germán Giuliani, Roberto Baldo and Gustavo Rivara have been detained for months, and in some cases, over a year. Human rights organizations in Argentina and Venezuela, as well as their families, are demanding their immediate release. Argentine-Israeli Yaacob Harary was released last week following a series of concessions made by the Venezuelan government after the United States captured former president Nicolás Maduro. Harary, 72, had been held in El Rodeo I prison since September 4, 2024, when he crossed the border from Colombia. On Wednesday, Venezuelan citizen Marino Antonio Mendoza, who used to work as a driver at the Argentine embassy in Caracas, was released after spending 13 months locked up inside the feared detention and torture center El Helicoide. He had been arrested in December 2024, just days after military police officer Nahuel Gallo was captured. “We are deeply overjoyed by this news. We continue to demand the release of ALL political prisoners of the Chavista dictatorship,” wrote Elisa Trotta, an Argentine-Venezuelan human rights activist and founder of the Argentine Forum for the Defense of Democracy, on X. According to Venezuelan human rights organization Foro Penal, 777 political prisoners remain locked up in the country and 143 have been freed since the government announced they would start releasing a “significant number” of local and foreign detainees. Who are the 4 Argentines held in Venezuela? The most renowned case is that of Gallo, a gendarme who has been imprisoned in El Rodeo I since December 2024. He was arrested on espionage and conspiracy charges while trying to enter Venezuela from Colombia to visit his family. On Wednesday, President Javier Milei made a new call for Gallo’s release. “We are particularly concerned about the situation of Nahuel Gallo, but in light of how the situation is improving, we are hopeful that Nahuel will return to us in Argentina,” he said during an interview with Bloomberg, while attending the Davos Conference in Switzerland. Milei celebrated the United States’ work in Venezuela, saying it is “excellent” and that it is giving good results in terms of the release of dozens of political prisoners. “We hope they can release all political prisoners.” Nahuel Gallo, in photo released by the Venezuelan government in early 2025 Lawyer Germán Giuliani was arrested on May 23 during a work trip, and his family has not heard from him since December 21. He was accused of being “a terrorist, drug trafficker and mercenary,” his wife, Virginia Rivero, told TN news channel. Last week, family members, as well as Venezuelan and Argentine activists, publicly denounced the detention of two other men whose situation had flown under the radar until now: Roberto Baldo and Gustavo Rivara. Baldo, an Argentine-Venezuelan dual citizen, was arrested alongside his wife, Spanish-Venezuelan Montserrat Espinosa, on November 29, 2024. Baldo is being held at the Yare 3 prison, and Espinosa at the Bolivarian National Police’s headquarters. They were charged with terrorism, conspiracy, criminal association, and inciting hatred. Their two daughters, Camila and Paulina, told TN news channel that the couple were arrested after a family member asked them to deliver an envelope whose contents they “were unaware of,” and they did not know who the recipient was. The daughters added that their parents have suffered “serious health deterioration,” which they saw while visiting them. Ellos son Roberto Baldo y Montserrat Espinosa de Baldo. Esposos. Roberto es argentino-venezolano y Montserrat es española-venezolana. Ambos están secuestrados por la dictadura chavista desde finales de 2024, y siguen allí, en los calabozos de este régimen criminal, como es el… pic.twitter.com/UttVCtUpvI— Elisa Trotta (@EliTrotta) January 15, 2026 Rivara’s case was denounced on social media by activists who became aware of his arrest thanks to fellow political prisoners who were released from El Helicoide. “We found out about him because he shared a cell with one of the people who were recently released, whom he asked to please call for his situation to be addressed,” Trotta told the Herald. “Our understanding is that he is in a very delicate emotional and psychological situation.” Trotta added that she and her organization are in contact with his family, who are currently taking the necessary steps to demand his release. Gustavo Rivara es el quinto argentino que fue secuestrado por la dictadura chavista. Como más de mil inocentes, permanece en cautiverio en Venezuela. Está encerrado en El Helicoide, el mayor centro de torturas de Latinoamérica. Gustavo y TODOS los presos políticos deben ser… pic.twitter.com/vTVDWxuW01— Elisa Trotta (@EliTrotta) January 19, 2026 Gonzalo Himiob, one of the leaders of Foro Penal, denied claims that Rivara was about to be released, and said in an X post that “his family is awaiting formal information about his situation.”  Rivara is a writer who had been held in El Helicoide once before, while researching Chavismo during a trip across the Americas in 2002, but was later released. Between December 2024 and January 2025, he returned to Venezuela to protest the Maduro regime. He is understood to have been imprisoned for around a year, since his latest Facebook posts show he was preparing to participate in protests carried out in Caracas on January 10, 2025. Cover image: Gustavo Rivara, Roberto Baldo and Germán Giuliani