The summit of the so-called Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) that Alberto Fernández will chair in Buenos Aires on Tuesday the 24th, took on new life after the assumption of Lula da Silva, his ally, on January 1st.
The meeting, in which some twenty leaders of the 33 countries that make up this forum are expected, takes place in the midst of the violent assault by the Bolsonaristas on the buildings of the three powers of Brazil.
In this case, Santiago Cafiero broadcast on Thursday his meeting with the Brazilian ambassador, Reinaldo José de Almeida Salgado, who will soon be displaced by another head of embassy named by Lula.
Jair Bolsonaro's ambassador, Almeida had to deliver the letter to Cafiero confirming Brazil's return to CELAC, from where the now former president had withdrawn.
But the focus of attention now is the eventual visit to Argentina by Nicolás Maduro.
The Venezuelan continues without confirming it.
He had done the same for Lula da Silva's inauguration on January 1 and in the end he cancelled.
The Cuban Miguel Díaz Canel has made it known that he is coming and the Nicaraguan dictator, Daniel Ortega, will send his foreign minister, Denis Moncada, to Buenos Aires.
Maduro's previous moves are always shrouded in mystery and controversy.
And as if that were not enough, since 2020 he has been pursued around the world by
a ransom offer of 15 million dollars for whoever turns him over to the United States
, where they accuse him of leading, along with other leaders of Chavismo, a network of corruption and drug terrorism.
A decade has passed since Cristina Kirchner, being president, received Maduro at the Casa Rosada.
Now, as Maduro said this Thursday, before the Venezuelan National Assembly, he wants to lead a regional "progressive" force with an axis in Brazil-Colombia and that integrates Argentina.
"I have been able to discuss it with Lula by telephone, personally here in Caracas with President Gustavo Petro, with our brother Alberto Fernández from Argentina. This year we will seek to strengthen a great movement of progressive peoples that faces the imperial threat," he
said in statements reproduced by Venezuelan television.
A plane for six people
A week ago, Chavismo sent a plane from the Venezuelan Consortium of Aeronautical Industries and Air Services SA (Conviasa) to Buenos Aires.
It was reported that such an aircraft "only" transported six Chavismo officials and that they were part of the advance party prior to a presidential trip.
Security officials remain in the country.
The Conviasa company has been sanctioned by the United States Treasury since 2020. But the aircraft that arrived in Buenos Aires, as the official plane of the Venezuelan presidency, and the six crew members, would have arrived
with passports that enjoy immunities.
The aircraft was on Argentine soil for only a few hours and took off without refueling.
Reasons to fear abounded.
An Emtrasur plane, also sanctioned, and with a request for kidnapping by the US justice system, was detained in Ezeiza last June when it made an emergency landing.
The crews of 19 Venezuelans and Iranians were able to leave after more than two months immobilized by the courts, but the aircraft was hijacked in Ezeiza.
After consulting Argentine government sources, they confirmed that the outpost, like "every presidential outpost," must provide intelligence services.
And they did not deny the reports that they brought security teams with them for the eventual arrival of Maduro.
The million-dollar reward for the arrest of Maduro offered from the United States
"The UN has identified the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN) and the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) as two organizations that make up
the torture machinery responsible for crimes against humanity in Venezuela,"
complained Venezuelan opposition leader
Elisa Trotta .
Gamus,
who lives in this country.
And she pointed out that "the arrival of SEBIN or DGCIM agents posing as diplomats would represent a threat to the security of Argentina and a slap in the face to thousands of Venezuelan victims of these task forces."
Reward versus immunities
Alberto Fernández made a gradual approach to Nicolás Maduro,
who always recognized
Cristina Kirchner as a leader
and who allowed his officials to even issue insults towards the Argentine president during the bilateral crisis this year over the case of the Emtrasur plane.
Fernández raised the rank of the head of the diplomatic headquarters in Caracas to ambassador - demoted by the Macri administration - and sent the Kirchnerist leader Oscar Laborde to it.
Fernández has given the order to reactivate political and commercial ties, protected by the fact that - they say here - Joe Biden "negotiates with the Chavistas on the low, especially in economic matters."
In that Venezuelans no longer recognize Juan Guaidó as "interim" president.
And also, when Lula decided to reactivate the Brazilian embassy in Caracas, which Bolsonaro had practically closed.
In this sense, they assure, if Maduro does not take risks, he would come to the country in the week of January 20.
They comment that Argentina "does not apply unilateral sanctions imposed by the Trump government", and these do not have a mandatory application effect.
Even so, Maduro is only seen traveling through "friendly" countries - Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua and, more recently, Egypt - and in some cases he risks stays that have been confirmed as safe.
In this case, since March 2020, an indictment against Maduro and 14 other current and former officials of the regime has been in force, arising in courts in Washington, New York and Miami in which they are accused of looting billions of dollars from Venezuela, and of "conspiring with the FARC, causing the entry of tons of cocaine" into the United States "devastating American communities."
"The United States Department of State, through its Narcotics Rewards Program, is offering rewards of up to US$15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of (Nicolás) Maduro Moros," reads a part of the accusation in which they also offer millions for other well-known Chavistas.
The Republican senators for Florida, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, tried to apply said reward and activate said accusation during the trip that Maduro made to Mexico in September 2021 to participate in a CELAC presidential summit.
But Andrés Manuel López Obrador ignored any extradition request.
Rubio even demands that Interpol impose a red alert condition that implies an international arrest warrant.
Even so, as analysts in the United States pointed out to the La Voz de las Américas site, "Neither Mexico nor any country has a legal basis or spirit" to detain Maduro outside Venezuelan territory.
"Maduro does not have any international arrest warrant to his name or a firm conviction by local or foreign courts that demand his arrest inside or outside Venezuela," said international relations specialist and university professor Lauren Caballero to La Voz de las Americas.
“Beyond the fact that certain courts of a particular State have requested the capture of Maduro or there is a reward, there is no basis from the point of view of international justice to proceed with an action of this type, which would imply the capture of a acting president in a third country,” Caballero commented in a conversation with the Voice of America from Venezuela.