Colombia offers to safeguard Maduro foes at Argentina's Embassy as stand-off deepens

Colombia has offered to take custody of Argentina’s Embassy in Caracas, where six of opposition leader María Corina Machado’s aides have been sheltered since March.

It’s part of what Foreign Affairs Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo, speaking late Tuesday from a conference in Colombia’s San Andrés, said was direct communication with Venezuela’s government to secure the safe passage of the opposition officials.

He said Venezuela’s government seems willing to cooperate if Colombia can convince Argentina to release an unnamed person close to the Venezuelan government, as well as getting Ecuador to release its former vice-president Jorge Glas. 

Glas, who was detained in April in a controversial raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito, served as vice-president under President Rafael Correa, a close ally of Hugo Chávez and Maduro. Maduro called the raid on the Mexican Embassy an act of “barbarism” by President Daniel Noboa, who he said supported Venezuela’s right-wing powers.

The negotiations for the safe passage of the aides offer a glimpse into Colombia’s growing involvement in Venezuela’s political impasse after President Nicolás Maduro clamped down on dissenters in the wake of his highly contested re-election. 

Machado’s six aides moved into the Argentine Embassy in March, facing potential arrest for what Venezuela’s government has called acts of terrorism on behalf of Machado, and her stand-in candidate, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia. In the wake of the election, Argentina broke diplomatic relations with Venezuela and handed over management of their mission to Brazil. 

Venezuela’s police forces have increasingly targeted the Embassy, ramping up intimidation particularly in recent weeks. The six opposition leaders have shared videos on social media of police forces cutting off power to the residence and limiting almost all access to water and food. The United Nations human rights council has said those actions are “in violation of international law.”

The group includes opposition campaign manager Magalli Meda and Machado advisers Pedro Urruchurtu and Claudia Macero. 

Tensions have increased as Maduro and González — who fled to Spain in August — have each said they plan to be sworn in when the new presidential term begins on January 10. 

Murillo said he travelled to both Brazil and Ecuador to resolve the matter on Colombia President Gustavo Petro’s orders. 

Brazil’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has said it will retain its custody of the Embassy until the Argentine government appoints another state to step in. Argentina said the situation demonstrates that “in Maduro’s Venezuela, the fundamental rights of human beings are not respected.”

While relations between Venezuela and Brazil soured after the vote, the two governments recently reopened talks. Despite their close ties, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva still hasn’t acknowledged Maduro as the winner and called for him to release the ballots to prove his supposed victory.