The Argentine Government welcomes six Venezuelan opponents in its Embassy in Caracas

The Argentine Government led by Javier Milei announced this Tuesday that it has provided asylum in its embassy in Caracas to six opponents of Nicolás Maduro's regime.

While tension escalates in Venezuela due to the exclusion of the main opposition candidates for the October presidential elections, Argentina has denounced that the Venezuelan Government cut off the electricity supply to its official residence in Caracas this Monday after the delegation received the political leaders Venezuelans.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry has not publicly identified them, but has warned Maduro “about any deliberate action that endangers the safety of Argentine diplomatic personnel and Venezuelan citizens under protection,” in a statement published this Tuesday afternoon.

"President Javier Milei urges the socialist Nicolás Maduro to ensure the security and well-being of the Venezuelan people, as well as to call transparent, free, democratic and competitive elections, without proscriptions of any kind," demands the statement published by the president's office. Argentinian.

The decision of the Milei Government to welcome political asylum seekers in its embassy in Caracas comes after weeks of tension between both countries.

In the middle of this month, Milei announced that he would take “diplomatic actions” against Nicolás Maduro after the Venezuelan government decided to close its airspace to Argentine planes.

It was the last offensive in a diplomatic conflict that lasted almost two years: in June 2022, while Argentina was governed by Peronism, a Boeing 747-300 from the Venezuelan company Emtrasur was detained at the Buenos Aires airport along with its 19 crew members.

The plane, which had been transferred from an Iranian company to a Venezuelan company just a few months before, raised suspicions in the United States and no Argentine company wanted to refuel it.

The Argentine justice system investigated its crew members – 14 Venezuelans and five Iranians – for almost three months for alleged terrorist links, but released them in October of that year due to lack of evidence to prosecute them.

The plane remained in Argentina, and after the change of Government last December, Milei delivered it to the United States.

“Milei's bandit stole the Venezuelan plane,” claimed Maduro, who ended up cutting off access to the airspace of Argentine planes that cross it to reach the United States.

“Argentina is not going to allow itself to be extorted by friends of terrorism,” responded the Argentine Government spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, who then announced the “diplomatic actions” that had not been clear until this Tuesday.

Milei has found in Maduro the first frontal enemy of an aggressive diplomatic line that he deployed during his presidential campaign and that liquefied after his arrival to power.

Before becoming president, Milei threatened in almost all his public appearances to cut off relations with “communist regimes,” among which he included his main trading partners, China and Brazil, with whom he later sought to quietly build bridges.

The Argentine president no longer publicly insults his Brazilian counterpart, Lula da Silva, whom he called a “corrupt communist” during the campaign, and his Foreign Ministry has tried to show a good relationship with the Chinese embassy after rumors spread about alleged meetings between the foreign minister, Diana Mondino, and representatives of Taiwan, an overseas territory that China claims as its own.

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