Venezuela, Brazil Tensions Rise Over Opposition Asylum Seekers

(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s government, whose brutal crackdown on dissent is rattling Latin American allies, threatened to go after opposition campaign workers who have sheltered in the Argentine embassy for months.

Dozens of President Nicolás Maduro’s agents stationed themselves outside the embassy in Caracas on Friday night, though as of Saturday morning they hadn’t attempted to enter. Road access was blocked by police cars, and the power was out, according to the social media feeds of the opposition workers ensconced in the Argentine mission.

The stand-off is escalating tensions on Latin America’s left, where long-time allies of Maduro, including the presidents Brazil and Colombia, have been trying and failing to rein in his authoritarian tendencies. 

Six top aides to opposition leader María Corina Machado have been sheltered in the Argentine embassy since March. They are currently under the protection of the Brazilian government through an agreement with Argentina, whose personnel were expelled from the country in the aftermath of the election. 

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The Argentine embassy is harboring people suspected of terrorist acts and assassination plots against Maduro and Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela’s information ministry said in a statement. Brazil’s permission to oversee the Argentine mission has been revoked, the agency said.

The Venezuelan president has hauled hundreds of dissenters and protesters into jail in the wake of the July 28 vote, in which he claimed victory despite evidence to the contrary. The regime has also sought to arrest opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González.

Brazil’s foreign affairs ministry said it will retain its custody of the embassy “and defense of Argentine interests” until the Argentine government appoints another state to step in. Argentina said the situation demonstrates that “in Maduro’s Venezuela, the fundamental rights of human beings are not respected.”

A Brazilian diplomatic official said Saturday that the government is negotiating with Venezuela and won’t abandon the Argentine mission.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has long cultivated close ties to Venezuela’s socialist regime, has reiterated his government’s refusal to acknowledge Maduro as the winner of the July 28 vote and called for the release of full ballot records. Argentine President Javier Milei, the libertarian leader who routinely trades public barbs with Lula, lauded Brazil’s move to step in and attempt to defuse the conflict after the election.

Opposition campaign manager Magalli Meda, Machado advisers Pedro Urruchurtu and Claudia Macero, and three others sought refuge in Argentina’s embassy six months ago after Maduro’s public prosecutor ordered their arrest for alleged involvement in a plot to destabilize Venezuela’s government. 

--With assistance from Daniel Carvalho, Simone Iglesias and Alex Vasquez.

(Updates with Venezuelan government statement in second paragraph.)

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