BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Venezuela's release of detainees Thursday briefly brought relief and guarded optimism to a country consumed by uncertainty.
But it was another, less covered news event far afield that some Venezuelan advocates said offered their only real shot at justice as long as the government of former President Nicolás Maduro remained intact.
A federal court in Argentina Thursday ordered the judiciary to press on with investigations into alleged crimes against humanity committed by members of Venezuela’s national guard, turning down an appeal by a former officer who argued that Argentina had no jurisdiction to go after Venezuelan officials.
Judges demanded that Argentina pursue the case under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, whereby human rights violators of any nationality can be charged in any country, no matter where the crimes were committed, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by The Associated Press.
Lawyers said the timing of the court decision sent a message.
After attacking Venezuela and seizing its president to stand trial in the U.S., the Trump administration surprised Venezuelans and the international community by endorsing Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s handpicked deputy who oversaw the feared intelligence service, to lead the transition.
“We cannot lose our focus at this moment,” said Ignacio Jovtis, director for Latin America at InterJust, an organization seeking accountability for international crimes and representing three of the Venezuelan plaintiffs. “Victims in Venezuela are still waiting for justice.”
Whatever relief Venezuelans felt seeing Maduro in handcuffs Saturday “has nothing to do with the process of bringing truth and reparation to victims and trying perpetrators for crimes against humanity,” he added.
It's no coincidence that this investigation is progressing in Argentina, experts say, a country that has learned a thing or two about prosecuting a strongman from its groundbreaking efforts bringing to justice the brutal military dictatorship that oversaw the killing or disappearance of as many as 30,000 Argentines from 1976 to 1983.
Over 1,200 ex-army officers have been tried and sentenced in Argentina, many to life in prison, and hundreds more await trial.
As one of just a handful of countries whose law permits the investigation of crimes-against-humanity cases beyond its borders, Argentina has increasingly taken center stage in lawsuits ranging from the torture of dissidents under Franco’s dictatorship in Spain to atrocities committed by the military against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Frustrated by the impunity in their home country and the limits of the laboriously slow International Criminal Court, Venezuelans have taken their quests for justice to Argentina.
Thursday's criminal complaint accuses 14 Venezuelan National Guard officers of human rights abuses dating to 2014, when security forces under Maduro aggressively stamped out anti-government protests, arresting, torturing and killing suspected dissidents.
Argentina began investigating the allegations in 2023. A catalogue of torture was spelt out in court as former detainees and families of protesters killed in the crackdown flew to Buenos Aires to give testimony.
Last year, Justo José Noguera Pietri — a key defendant and former commander of Venezuela's national guard — asked the Argentine judiciary to dismiss the case and void the outstanding arrest warrant against him. A federal appeals court denied his requests Thursday, citing the “extreme gravity” of the alleged crimes.
“For us, this is not a symbolic investigation,” Jovtis said. "We want the perpetrators to go before an Argentine judge and be tried here.”
A separate Venezuelan case filed recently in Argentina targets ousted President Maduro, hard-line Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and other top officials still in power. An Argentine judge asked for the extradition of the defendants this week.
Argentine President Javier Milei, a right-wing ideologue and President Donald Trump’s most loyal Latin American ally, joyously celebrated the capture of the leader he long lambasted as the ultimate political evil.
A staple on the global conservative speaking circuit, Milei has long been friendly with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado and last October attended the ceremony in Norway that awarded her the Nobel Peace Prize.
As U.S. Special Forces whisked Maduro out of Venezuela, Milei issued a triumphant statement calling for “everything to be set right and for the true president to take office, Edmundo González Urrutia " — the candidate widely considered the legitimate winner of the country's turbulent 2024 election.
But as Trump froze out Machado and elevated Rodríguez, Milei changed his tune.
All mentions of democracy were scrubbed from Argentina's official statements on Venezuela. In their Tuesday telephone call about the situation, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Argentine counterpart spoke only about “cooperation to confront narcoterrorism.”
On the streets of Caracas, the initial jolt of euphoria after Maduro's capture last Saturday has rapidly worn off, turning into a more familiar, nagging dread. Pro-government paramilitary groups known as “colectivos” have been deployed across Caracas.
“Right now in Venezuela, everybody’s erasing their phones because 'colectivos' are checking to see if you’ve been tweeting or looking at anything anti-government,” said Ricardo Hausmann, a professor of the practice of international political economy at the Harvard Kennedy School. “There is too much talk about oil and money, but for Venezuelans to do anything, they need rights.”
Trump, preoccupied with the prospect of extracting Venezuela’s oil riches, had only praise for Rodríguez's government in an interview with Fox News late Thursday.
“They’ve been great,” he said of Maduro's loyalists, hailing the release of detainees. “Everything we’ve wanted they’ve given us.”
Some Venezuelans had other thoughts.
“The repressive machinery has not stopped, so we don’t know if there is any real change,” said Luis Carlos Díaz, a prominent Venezuelan journalist who was briefly detained in 2019.
Even more than Thursday's prisoner releases, he said, the case in Argentina gave him hope.
“That’s why it’s essential that other countries keep judicial processes open for Venezuela,” Díaz said. “If we had to wait for the dictatorship to fall before seeking justice, many of us would die first."
Associated Press writer Sergio Farella contributed to this report.
Riot police arrive to El Helicoide, the headquarters of Venezuela's intelligence service and detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the government would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Venezuelans celebrate at the Obelisk in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that President Nicolas Maduro had been captured and flown out of Venezuela. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Maria Alexandra Gomez, girlfriend of detained Argentine officer Nahuel Agustin Gallo, stands with their son Victor during a gathering of friends and relatives of people detained in Venezuela at a community center where they wait for news of their loved ones' release in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after Venezuelan authorities said the they would release Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
U.S. forces have boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea. The announcement was made Friday by the U.S. military. The Trump administration has been targeting sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.
The pre-dawn action was carried out by U.S. Marines and Navy, taking part in the monthslong buildup of forces in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared “there is no safe haven for criminals” as it announced the seizure of the vessel called the Olina.
Navy officials couldn’t immediately provide details about whether the Coast Guard was part of the force that took control of the vessel as has been the case in the previous seizures. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said there was no immediate comment on the seizure.
The Olina is the fifth tanker that has been seized by U.S. forces as part of a broader effort by Trump’s administration to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following the U.S. ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid.
The latest:
Republican Ho Nieh is the new chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, replacing fellow Republican David Wright.
Nieh, who was confirmed to the commission last month, previously worked at Atlanta-based Southern Co., which recently added two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta.
Nieh worked at the NRC for two decades and is the agency’s first former resident inspector to serve as a commissioner.
Trump recently fired a Democratic commissioner as he continues to assert more control over independent regulatory agencies.
Richard Grenell, president of the Kennedy Center, says a documentary film about first lady Melania Trump will make its premiere later this month, posting a trailer on X.
As the Trumps prepared to return to the White House last year, Amazon Prime Video announced a year ago that it had obtained exclusive licensing rights for a streaming and theatrical release directed by Brett Ratner.
Melania Trump also released a self-titled memoir in late 2024.
Some artists have canceled scheduled Kennedy Center performances after a newly installed board voted to add President Donald Trump’s to the facility, prompting Grenell to accuse the performers of making their decisions because of politics.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum says that she has asked her foreign affairs secretary to reach out directly to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Trump regarding comments by the American leader that the U.S. cold begin ground attacks against drug cartels.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News aired Thursday night, Trump said, “We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch.”
As she has on previous occasions, Sheinbaum downplayed the remarks, saying “it is part of his way of communicating.” She said she asked her Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente to strengthen coordination with the U.S.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s offer to send U.S. troops after Mexican drug cartels. She emphasizes that there will be no violation of Mexico’s sovereignty, but the two governments will continue to collaborate closely.
Analysts do not see a U.S. incursion in Mexico as a real possibility, in part because Sheinbaum’s administration has been doing nearly everything Trump has asked and Mexico is a critical trade partner.
Trump says he wants to secure $100 billion to remake Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, a lofty goal going into a 2:30 meeting on Friday with executives from leading oil companies. His plan rides on oil producers being comfortable in making commitments in a country plagued by instability, inflation and uncertainty.
The president has said that the U.S. will control distribution worldwide of Venezuela’s oil and will share some of the proceeds with the country’s population from accounts that it controls.
“At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said Friday in a pre-dawn social media post.
Trump is banking on the idea that he can tap more of Venezuela’s petroleum reserves to keep oil prices and gasoline costs low.
At a time when many Americans are concerned about affordability, the incursion in Venezuela melds Trump’s assertive use of presidential powers with an optical spectacle meant to convince Americans that he can bring down energy prices.
Trump is expected to meet with oil executives at the White House on Friday.
He hopes to secure $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s oil industry. The goal rides on the executives’ comfort with investing in a country facing instability and inflation.
Since a U.S. military raid captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, Trump has said there’s a new opportunity to use the country’s oil to keep gasoline prices low.
The full list of executives invited to the meeting has not been disclosed, but Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend.
Attorneys general in five Democratic-led states have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration after it said it would freeze money for several public benefit programs.
The Trump administration has cited concerns about fraud in the programs designed to help low-income families and their children. California, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois and New York states filed the lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuit asks the courts to order the administration to release the funds. The attorneys general have called the funding freeze an unconstitutional abuse of power.
Iran’s judiciary chief has vowed decisive punishment for protesters, signaling a coming crackdown against demonstrations.
Iranian state television reported the comments from Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on Friday. They came after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticized Trump’s support for the protesters, calling Trump’s hands “stained with the blood of Iranians.”
The government has shut down the internet and is blocking international calls. State media has labeled the demonstrators as “terrorists.”
The protests began over Iran’s struggling economy and have become a significant challenge to the government. Violence has killed at least 50 people, and more than 2,270 have been detained.
Trump questions why a president’s party often loses in midterm elections and suggests voters “want, maybe a check or something”
Trump suggested voters want to check a president’s power and that’s why they often deliver wins for an opposing party in midterm elections, which he’s facing this year.
“There’s something down, deep psychologically with the voters that they want, maybe a check or something. I don’t know what it is, exactly,” he said.
He said that one would expect that after winning an election and having “a great, successful presidency, it would be an automatic win, but it’s never been a win.”
Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.
December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.
The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.
FILE - President Donald Trump dances as he walks off stage after speaking to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
