A year after his arbitrary imprisonment, a former cellmate shares details about how the gendarme, held hostage by Chavismo, lives in Venezuela

“What is very difficult for Nahuel is the isolation from his family, from his son, from his mother, from his wife. Because, well, whatever, that’s what kills you, right? arise in this moment between father and son. And that’s exactly what they steal from Nahuel,” he said. Clarion from the other side of the phone and from Cúcuta, Colombia, Iván Colmenares.

This young Colombian shared prison with the Argentine gendarme who was arbitrarily arrested by the Chavista dictatorship a year ago. They were together, in opposite cells and then in the same cell, until Colmenares, who was born in Colombia, was brought out without having the opportunity to say goodbye to his friend, whom he calls Agustín because he is Nahuel Agustín Gallo. Both shared a cell in the El Rodeo Prison, also called El Rodeo Judicial Confinement Center, which is on the outskirts of Caracas and where there are as many Venezuelans as foreigners.

The only images, photos and a video of Gallo that the regime claimed as proof of life last year were taken there.

Due to international efforts, Colmenares was released on October 24. Indirect statements that reached him and the Argentine authorities in Washington indicate that Gallo is “in good condition” but remains in contact with the outside world, which, like his own arbitrary detention, constitutes an absolute violation of minimum human rights.

In the first months of his abduction, one of the regime’s most feared leaders, Diosdado Cabello, accused him without evidence of being a “spy” and part of an “international “terrorist attack”” after he wanted to “assassinate” Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

Clarion Thanks to the Colombian-Venezuelan lawyer, he turned to Colmenares. Andres Soto, who is in constant contact with the relatives of foreign political prisoners in Venezuela, where, for example, there were ever more than 80 of Colombian origin, but the count is now lost in the chaos.

This Monday the 8th marks a kidnapping or arbitrary detention of Gallo. Entered Venezuela by land from Colombia over the international bridge Francisco de Paula Santander. He had traveled to visit his Argentine son. It is considered wrong that his superiors in the gendarmerie gave him permission to travel because of the risk to his own work. In addition, the regime of Nicolás Maduro and the government of Javier Milei do not have diplomatic relations. But Gallo traveled with all papers in order from his superiors. He was on vacation.

Little Victor, that one He will be three years old in JanuaryHe is his son as a couple with the young Venezuelan María Alexandra Gómez, whom he met in Argentina and who has been living in her country for several months with her mother and child. Both were brought to Argentina as part of an operation by the Ministry of Security, which has still not contacted Nahuel, completely incommunicado, without speaking to his family. And even more so without the Argentine Foreign Ministry being able to do so. Rather, Argentina is entirely dependent on diplomatic or military efforts by the United States to eliminate it.

The Colmenares case is similar to that of many arbitrary arrests of foreigners and locals in Venezuela. It is said that there are two Argentines, the gendarme and the businessman Germán Giuliani, who are accused by the hierarchs of “drug trafficking”. But Colmenares counted against it Clarion another who was also with Nahuel, Argentine-Israeli architect Yacoov Harari, who is 72 and whose health has deteriorated in prison. There are almost 90 foreign prisoners who are increasingly making this claim The dictatorship exchanges them at will, as it did with Americans, French, Colombians, Brazilians and Uruguayans, among others. Or to use them “as a protective shield” in the event that Trump initiates a military invasion.

Colmenares worked for the Colombian Army with projects for the UNHCR. And when he was arrested on November 1, 2024, he spent days of starvation in a first shelter. He was somewhat relieved when they took him to El Rodeo, where Nahuel Gallo arrived the following December 8th. They were given low protein breakfast, lunch and dinner.

He saw Nahuel become sick from eating for twenty days and suffer a long and extreme intestinal breakdown, resulting in diarrhea.. They were in different cells, but next to each other or opposite each other and then in the same one. Nahuel was also a companion of Peruvian Arturo Paredes, who was imprisoned with his wife, Colmenares said.

“I met Nahuel on December 13, 2024 when he arrived at Rodeo 1, well, a little confused, like lost, and well, the idea between all of us was how we can support and support each other, well, we all arrived the same way and that’s basically all, but well, we became friends from the first moment.”

What can you say about him except that he suffered for his family?

He talked a lot about what he did outside and how he enjoyed running. And, well, also very proud to be part of his gendarmerie. I told you that I belong to this whole institution in Argentina. It fascinates him, that fascinates him.

And what was your life like with Nahuel Gallo as a prisoner?

Well, the routines were the same every day. The same from both. We got up at 5 a.m. because we were counted at that time. After that, they suddenly delivered medicine to people who needed it. But for these people, well, arrest and things like that. We waited for a while and had to wait for them to take us to the terrace. But Nahuel never went out on the terrace. He never liked it so much as in protest

Was Nahuel treated better or worse because he was Argentinian and you because you were Colombian?

Well, in the beginning there was a certain fixation on Nahuel. They recorded it in the morning, they recorded it at noon, they recorded it at night. When they delivered breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes they filmed him sleeping and took photos of him. Yes, there was something like a special deal with him. But to look after him or out of spite? I think it’s more about them paying attention. Like it’s okay. We never had access to an electronic device. Very isolated. After seven months I was able to talk to my mother

After his release, as Maduro’s kidnapped people promise each other, Colmenares contacts Griselda, Nahuel’s mother, who lives in Catamarca with Daiana and Kevin. He also spoke to Alexandra, who will speak to the media this Monday and who has also been tirelessly asking about him.

Well, if being locked in a cell without doing anything isn’t torture, then I don’t know what torture is.

With Bullrich leaving the ministry, Nahuel’s request to Donald Trump’s administration depends on Ambassador Alec Oxenford and former Security Department intelligence director Ricardo Ferrer Picado.

The Argentine government has repeatedly petitioned the Organization of American States and the United Nations for Nahuel Gallobut the country reduced its staff of international negotiators. Rather, they no longer exist. Since the Argentine diplomats were kicked out of the Argentine embassy in Venezuela, there have been no contacts with the regime and that country’s dependence on Washington for a rescue – like that of Corina Machado’s asylum seekers at the end of the year – is absolute.