Brazil takes over the Argentine embassy in Venezuela and will protect the six opposition refugees there

Brazil has assumed this Thursday the diplomatic representation of Argentina in Caracas and, with it, the protection of six Venezuelan opposition members who have been sheltered in the legation for four months. Both the Argentine president, Javier Milei, and the Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, have publicly thanked the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for this gesture of enormous political significance in the midst of the crisis that has opened in Venezuela after the presidential elections on Sunday. The relief has been symbolized by the raising of the Brazilian flag at the residence of the Argentine ambassador in Caracas. The Chavista authorities expelled all the diplomats of Argentina and six other Latin American countries for expressing suspicions of electoral fraud by declaring Nicolás Maduro the winner without showing the voting records.

Four days after the election, Venezuelan electoral authorities have still not presented the minutes that would verify Maduro’s proclaimed reelection, despite the demands of the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and other countries, including some that have had close ties to Chavismo.

The decision by Brazil, which has also agreed to represent Peru, represents an unexpected collaboration between the leftist Brazilian president and the far-right Argentine leader, who have a tense relationship and have never met.

President Milei has expressed his satisfaction with the resolution of a puzzle for which intense diplomatic efforts were made. “I greatly appreciate Brazil’s willingness to take charge of the custody of the Argentine Embassy in Venezuela,” he said on X (formerly Twitter).

The ultra-liberal president also thanked the neighbouring country for “temporarily representing” the interests of Argentina and its citizens in Venezuela, expressing confidence that they will be able to reopen it soon “in a free and democratic Venezuela”.

Lula’s decision to accept Milei’s request can also be interpreted as a message to Maduro, another turn of the screw in the international pressure to make public the minutes of each electoral table. Brazil maintains a direct dialogue with all those involved in the crisis, including the two men who have declared themselves winners, Maduro and Edmundo González Urrutia, the man chosen by Machado to beat Chavismo at the polls.

The six Venezuelan opposition members who are seeking asylum in the Argentine Embassy in Caracas are close collaborators of the opposition leader Machado and work on her campaign. They sought refuge in the embassy on March 20 and have since tried in vain to obtain a safe passage permit that would allow them to leave the country safely.

One of them, Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli, head of international relations for Machado’s campaign, has been reporting on social media in recent days about the siege of the Argentine embassy by Chavista forces. Urruchurtu Noselli repeatedly asked Venezuelans to come to the embassy for fear of a possible police assault and denounced the power cut.

This Thursday, the aforementioned opposition leader shared a photo of the raising of the Brazilian flag at the Argentine Embassy. Claudia Macero, Mottola Magalí Meda, Fernando Martínez, Humberto Villalobos and Omar González are with him.

Milei has put aside the major differences she has with her Brazilian counterpart to highlight, instead, the closeness between both countries: “The ties of friendship that unite Argentina with Brazil are very strong and historic.” Her words come less than a month after ignoring President Lula on her first visit to Brazil, which consisted of participating in an ultra event with former president and ally Jair Bolsonaro shortly after cancelling his presence at a Mercosur summit.

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