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 the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, for these events. “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,” she said on her 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, surrounded and besieged” the Argentine Embassy in the Venezuelan capital.
The party’s Human Rights Committee has alerted the international community to 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 Unitary Platform of Venezuela 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.” “Engaging in politics is not a crime!” it has argued on the aforementioned platform.
Brazilian authorities have assumed Argentina’s consular representation, guarding its embassy in Caracas, since early August, after Maduro expelled diplomats from Buenos Aires for denying his victory in the July 28 presidential elections.