Argentina welcomes Maduro’s opponents to its embassy in Caracas; report power cuts

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BUENOS AIRES (AP) — The government of President Javier Milei reported Tuesday that it gave shelter to Venezuelan opposition leaders in the Argentine embassy in Caracas. In addition, he denounced the subsequent interruption of the electricity supply at the diplomatic headquarters, in the most recent episode of the growing diplomatic tension between both nations.

“With the support of the inviolability enshrined in… the Vienna Convention of which both nations, Argentina and Venezuela, are signatories, it has welcomed political leaders of the opposition at the official residence of the Argentine embassy in Caracas,” he announced. the office of the Argentine presidency in a statement.

Monday’s measure was taken on the eve of the controversial closing of lists for the July 28 general elections, in which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro aspires to a third term. The electoral process has been altered by the blocking of the nomination of opposition leader María Corina Machado and her replacement Corina Yoris.

The Argentine presidency did not confirm the identities of the dissidents housed in its diplomatic headquarters. A source in Milei’s government, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to provide information about the case, said there were six opponents.

In its official statement, Argentina denounced that after the entry of the opponents, the embassy suffered the interruption of the electricity supply.

In this regard, the Argentine authorities warned the government of Venezuela “about any deliberate action that endangers the safety of Argentine diplomatic personnel and Venezuelan citizens under protection, recalling the obligation of the receiving State to safeguard the facilities of the diplomatic mission against intrusions. or damage and preserve its tranquility and dignity.”

Tensions between Argentina and Venezuela have been increasing since the rise to power of Milei, a far-right ultraliberal economist who has described Maduro as an “impoverishing socialist.”

With a confrontational stance opposite to the more moderate line of his predecessor, the center-left Alberto Fernández, Milei has condemned the repression against the Venezuelan opposition.

In January, a month after assuming the presidency, Milei handed over to the United States a plane from the Venezuelan company Emtrasur linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which had been confiscated by the Argentine justice system when it landed in Buenos Aires two years ago.

In retaliation, the Maduro government prohibited the use of its airspace for Argentine aircraft until it is compensated for the seizure of the Emtrasur plane.