In a sudden consular clean sweep, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yvan Gil announced the withdrawal of all diplomatic personnel from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Panama, and Uruguay. The communiqué, published on X, also demanded that each country recall their representatives from Caracas.
The move comes after international leaders and foreign ministries across the region criticized the announcement of President Nicolás Maduro’s re-election on Sunday.
“Venezuela expresses its firmest rejection of interfering actions and declarations from a group of right-wing governments subordinated to Washington and openly committed to the most sordid ideological stances of international fascism,” Gil posted on X alongside a megaphone emoji.
Earlier on Monday, with 80% of the vote counted, the Venezuelan Electoral Council announced that Maduro won a third consecutive six-year term with 51.2% of the vote. However, electoral authorities have not released the full vote count and exit polls indicated a clear win for the opposition. The Venezuelan leader has presided over an economic and humanitarian crisis, worsened by U.S.-led economic sanctions, and has been accused of grave human rights violations.
The Argentine Foreign Ministry had published a communiqué earlier on Monday afternoon rejecting the result outright, an hour and 20 minutes before Gil’s announcement.
“[Argentina] strongly condemns the actions of President Nicolás Maduro who, as expected, has once again disregarded the will of the Venezuelan people to live in a free, prosperous and democratic Venezuela,” read the statement posted on X.
The communiqué also said it was essential for the Venezuelan opposition to have access to electoral records and called for the Argentine chargé d’affaires to shun the official re-election announcement.
The Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to the Herald’s request for comment on the withdrawal of Venezuela’s ambassador in Buenos Aires or the dismissal of Argentina’s diplomatic personnel from Caracas.
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Regional calls for transparency
There have been mixed international reactions to the Venezuelan election, with some international leaders rejecting the result outright and others congratulating Maduro.
“Not like this! It was an open secret. They were going to ‘win’ regardless of the actual results,” said Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou on X. “The process prior to election day and the vote counting were clearly flawed. You cannot recognize a triumph if you can’t trust the forms and mechanisms used to achieve it.”
Perú’s Foreign Minister Javier González Olaechea condemned the result and had already announced on X that the country was recalling its ambassador to Venezuela. Costa Rica had also “categorically condemned” the announcement of Maduro’s reelection.
Meanwhile, Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel also took to X to celebrate his Venezuelan counterpart. “Brother Nicolás Maduro, your victory, which is that of the Bolivarian and Chavista people, defeated the pro-imperialist opposition in an unequivocal manner,” he wrote, saying he had phoned Maduro to “warmly congratulate” him.
Other countries in the region have questioned the results, emphasizing the need for transparency and patience in waiting for the result. Mexico’s foreign ministry issued a communiqué saying the country “trusted the will of the Venezuelan people expressed at the polls would be respected through a transparent vote count.” Chile’s foreign ministry expressed similar sentiments, with the country’s Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren also calling for the opposition to be given access to electoral records. “We will abstain from recognizing any result that isn’t verifiable,” Klaveren wrote on X.
Several international leaders had already expressed concern in the run-up to Sunday’s electoral proceedings, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, after Maduro claimed there would be a “blood bath” and a “civil war” if the opposition won.
President Javier Milei had already hinted that the Argentine government would not recognize a new Maduro administration, taking to X at midnight on Monday to call his Venezuelan counterpart a “dictator.” The move prompted Maduro to call Milei a “cowardly bug” during a speech at his party headquarters. The Argentine president spat back on Monday afternoon that the insults were “compliments” to him: “Not even he believes the electoral fraud he’s celebrating. Neither does the Argentine Republic.”
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