The opposition party Vente Venezuela (VV) has denounced this Friday that Venezuelan intelligence and police officers are surrounding the Argentine Embassy in Caracas, where six leaders of the party have been hosted by the Government of Javier Milei since the end of March.
The party led by María Corina Machado has blamed these events on the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. “We hold Nicolás Maduro responsible for this siege against our leaders who have taken refuge in the Embassy. Our Command Chiefs are taking refuge there: Magalli Meda, Pedro Urruchurtu, Omar González, Claudia Macero and Beto Villalobos,” he said on his account on the social network X.
Previously, at around 8:30 a.m. (local time), Urruchurtu announced the arrival of patrols from the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) and the Directorate of Strategic and Tactical Actions (DAET) who, “along with hooded and armed officials, surround and besiege” the Argentine Embassy in the Venezuelan capital.
The party’s Human Rights Committee has alerted the international community of the presence of these officers “with their faces covered with balaclavas, armed and wearing bulletproof vests,” and has held the Maduro government responsible for “anything that may happen to (their) colleagues.”
For its part, the Venezuelan Unitary Platform has shown its rejection of the “irregular situation” that is occurring in the Argentine Embassy in the country, and has demanded the “immediate cessation of this “persecution.” “Doing politics is not a crime!” it has argued on the aforementioned platform.
The Brazilian authorities have assumed the consular representation of Argentina, guarding its Embassy in Caracas, since the beginning of August, after Maduro expelled the diplomats from Buenos Aires for denying his victory in the presidential elections of July 28.