Martina Jaureguy Venezuelan opposition members holed up at the Argentine embassy in Caracas since March denounced a new “siege” by the Maduro government on the compound.
According to their posts on social media, armed police and intelligence services have been surrounding the building since Saturday. At the time of writing, the situation had been going on for 60 hours and counting.
They were seen using drones presumably to capture images of the building. The phone signal in the area was cut off, and there were intermittent power outages at the embassy.
“It’s been over 60 hours of ongoing siege,” Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli, one of the six opposition leaders in the compound who have been granted political asylum by the Argentine government, wrote in an X post on Tuesday morning.
Urruchurtu first alerted about this situation on Saturday evening. He said that hooded members of the Venezuelan national police “armed with rifles” were surrounding the embassy and blocking access.
This is not the first time Venezuelan security forces have circled the Argentine embassy. They have been spotted at least twice since the July 28 elections, in which incumbent President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory and was declared winner. The opposition counters that the vote count was fraudulent and that Edmundo González Urrutia was the real victor.
The six Venezuelans in the compound are part of the team of opposition leader María Corina Machado. Despite winning the opposition primary, she was banned from running in the presidential election. González ran in her place, with her endorsement.
“This repeated act is a clear violation of international agreements in terms of asylum and diplomacy the Venezuelan state has adhered to,” said a communiqué from Machado and González’s campaign account on X posted on Sunday. The text also called for the opposition members to be granted safe passage and allowed to leave the country unharmed.
The embassy is currently under the protection of Brazil after Maduro ordered all Argentine diplomats leave the country right after the election after President Javier Milei accused the Venezuelan president of committing fraud.
The Argentine Foreign Ministry condemned the “harassment and intimidation” carried out against the refugees in an X post on Saturday. The communiqué states that the security officers’ actions “disturbed the security levels that must be guaranteed for diplomatic buildings according to international law, as well as for those who have requested diplomatic asylum.”
In line with the Argentine Foreign Ministry’s message, the United States Embassy in Venezuela also condemned the situation and demanded Maduro’s government to “respect its international obligations” and guarantee safe passage for the refugees.
Cover photo: image taken from inside the Argentine embassy in Venezuela, posted by Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli on X
