Spain – EFE, Jan. 13, 2026
Relatives of Argentines detained in Venezuela demanded their release this Tuesday outside the headquarters of the former Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) in Buenos Aires, where the largest clandestine detention center of Argentina’s last military dictatorship (1976–1983) once operated.
The demonstration was attended by family members of Argentine gendarme Nahuel Gallo, detained since December 2024 in the Caribbean country after attempting to enter by land from Colombia to visit his partner and son, as well as by those of lawyer Germán Giuliani, detained since May 2025 after traveling to Venezuela for work.
They were joined by Venezuelan opposition activists, who arrived carrying Venezuelan flags and a sign reading, “Free all political prisoners.”
The protesters also called for the “closure of torture centers” in Venezuela, comparing them to the ESMA, which functioned as a concentration camp, clandestine maternity ward, and extermination site. In 2015, the ESMA was converted into a memorial space for the crimes against humanity committed during the last dictatorship, during which an estimated 30,000 people were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered for political reasons.
