(Adnkronos) – Italy’s government “cares deeply” about Venice-born aid worker Alberto Trentini – who has been imprisoned in Venezuela for over a year without charge – and it is “working tirelessly” to free him, foreign minister Antonio Tajani stated on Wednesday.
“We care deeply about the case of Trentini and we are working tirelessly for his release,” Tajani said in an interview with northeast regional dailies.
The escalating tensions between the United States and Venezuela make the situation “more complex” than in other cases, such as that of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who was detained in Iran on 19 December last year and released on 8 January, Tajani noted.
“Cecilia Sala was released quickly,” said Tajani.
“And Alessia Piperno was too,” he added.
Tajani referring to an Italian travel blogger who was freed in Iran on 10 November 2022 after 50 days in detention without charge in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison following her arrest on 30 September that year.
“With Venezuela, the situation is more complex. But we are not giving up,” Tajani continued.
“We are in constant contact, including through indirect channels,” he said.
“We don’t publicly disclose everything we do: hostage diplomacy requires discretion. But Trentini’s family should know that we are working tirelessly: we have not forgotten him,” Tajani underlined.
Trentini, who works for the Humanity and Inclusion NGO, was arrested at a checkpoint while travelling from Caracas to the southeast city of Guasdalito on 15 November last year.
Since then, Trentini, who suffers from hypertension, has been held at prison in Guatire, on the outskirts of the capital and has had scarce contact with his family, who are gravely concerned for his welfare.
