Buenos Aires, March 4 (NA) – The wife of Argentine lawyer Germán Giuliani, detained in Venezuela since May 2025, publicly denounced that her husband was tortured in the first days of his captivity, in one of the most serious accusations made so far by the family of the Argentine imprisoned in that country. According to statements by Virginia Rivero, accessed by the Argentine News Agency, Giuliani would have been hung by his handcuffs and beaten to force him to incriminate himself. In a television interview, Rivero stated that her husband “has no evidence against him” and that the judicial case mounted by the Venezuelan regime lacks substance. According to her testimony, it was only this year that she managed to confirm the place where Giuliani is being held, after repeated conflicting reports about transfers that never materialized. The complaint by the lawyer's wife also included a personal reconstruction of the moment prior to the arrest. Last July, Rivero had said that the lawyer was arrested in Venezuela for work reasons and rejected the official version linking him to drug trafficking and political opposition. More recently, the detainee's sister also denounced that the Argentine's “all his rights were violated” and that he was a victim of torture. Giuliani's situation occurs in a context of growing international pressure over the situation of political prisoners in Venezuela. The woman insisted that Giuliani, a lawyer from San Isidro, was arrested arbitrarily and that the charges against him were constructed in an irregular file. As early as July 2025, she had affirmed that he was detained without evidence and accused with “completely false” charges, while in January she again warned about the lack of transparency surrounding his judicial situation and his place of detention. Rivero also recounted that contact with her husband was scarce and controlled. Rivero described Giuliani as a passionate about sailing and chess, and stated that the family was unaware of the magnitude of the Venezuelan internal conflict when he traveled. In previous statements, she had explained that on weekends they shared river-related activities and that they never imagined being involved in a situation of such severity. In this context, the woman stated that her husband's case has become a nightmare for the entire family. “We are very afraid,” she conveyed in her media appearance, emphasizing that reports of supposed transfers, changes of uniform and potential releases fueled an expectation that never materialized for months. In January, she also denounced along with other relatives of detainees that this type of maneuver constituted a “psychological torture” for those waiting for news of their loved ones. Giuliani's case had already gained public visibility in Argentina through the demands of his wife and other relatives. In January, relatives of Argentines detained in that country even requested the intervention of the Vatican to speed up the releases and demand guarantees on the physical and psychological integrity of the inmates. According to her account, at some moments they barely allowed brief calls, while the family went through months of uncertainty and fear for not knowing precisely where he was being held.
