Mattarella Calls Trentini’s Mother: “Stay Strong, Don’t Lose Hope: Italy Is With Alberto”

 

Italy – La Repubblica, Dec. 23, 2025

“Mrs. Armanda, this is Sergio Mattarella. Stay strong, don’t lose hope: Italy is with Alberto. And with you.”

In recent days, the phone rang at the Trentini household. The call came from the Quirinale: the President of the Republic wanted to speak with Armanda Trentini, the mother of Alberto, the Italian aid worker detained in Venezuela for 404 days, to express the solidarity and closeness of the entire country.

The unjustified arrest

Mrs. Trentini, together with her lawyer Alessandra Ballerini, has been asking Italians for months not to leave her alone, desperate because no immediate solution seems in sight. Alberto is being held in El Rodeo prison, a few kilometers from the capital, without any charges. More than a detainee, he is a hostage: Trentini was arrested on November 15, 2024, while traveling from Caracas to Guasdualito, in the state of Apure. 

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