An Argentine judge has requested the extradition of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from the United States over alleged crimes against humanity, according to a warrant signed this week as the U.S. prepares to prosecute Maduro on federal criminal charges in Brooklyn. The case in Buenos Aires is built around Argentina’s use of universal jurisdiction and an extradition treaty with the U.S., even as the Trump administration is expected to resist transferring a detainee already facing U.S. proceedings.
The warrant, signed by Argentine federal judge Sebastián Ramos and seen by The Associated Press, directs that the “urgent translation of the international request and the documentation attached thereto is hereby ordered,” Ramos wrote, AP reported. It was issued after Argentine prosecutors asked Ramos to pursue the extradition as part of an ongoing crimes-against-humanity investigation.
Argentine officials accused Maduro, who was captured by the U.S. military last month, of overseeing a harsh crackdown on protesters and political opponents during his time as president, according to AP’s account of the Argentine proceeding. The investigation in Buenos Aires relies on plaintiffs who include Venezuelans who said they suffered torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, among other abuses, allegedly committed by Venezuelan security forces and intelligence agents.
The request was filed in 2023 in Buenos Aires by human rights organizations representing victims, AP reported, and it leans on universal jurisdiction, a legal concept that allows for the prosecution in one country of serious crimes committed elsewhere. Argentina’s approach has previously been used in cases that expand beyond national borders, according to AP, including litigation tied to alleged abuses committed in other countries.
Under the warrant’s framework, Argentina’s foreign ministry must now formally present the extradition request to the Trump administration, AP reported. AP said that compliance is unlikely because Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are awaiting trial in a Brooklyn jail on U.S. federal charges that include narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.
AP reported that those U.S. charges allege Maduro and Flores worked with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States over a 25-year period. The overlap of an extradition request with an active U.S. criminal case is central to what happens next, including whether the U.S. will decide to prioritize its own prosecution timeline.
Even so, at least one of the Argentine organizations that filed the 2023 case hailed the extradition step. AP reported that the Argentine Forum for the Defense of Democracy said the move was “for Argentina, for justice, and above all, for Venezuelan victims who dared to speak out.”
The warrant also cites the 1997 extradition treaty between Argentina and the United States and acknowledges Maduro’s recent capture, AP said. It follows an earlier step in Argentina: an international arrest warrant first issued for Maduro in 2024, AP reported, which became part of the prosecutors’ push to seek extradition after the U.S. operation that ousted him on Jan. 3.
President Javier Milei of Argentina, a prominent right-wing figure in the region and an ally of President Donald Trump, has cheered the U.S. military seizure of Maduro, AP reported. The extradition request is now another legal front in a dispute that, from the Argentine perspective, aims to pursue accountability for alleged abuses tied to Maduro’s crackdown, while the U.S. criminal case continues to move through federal court.