Venezuela has promised Brazil that it would respect the integrity of the Argentine Embassy in Caracas, including the six opponents of Nicolás Maduro’s government who have taken refuge inside the diplomatic mission, according to a Brazilian official with knowledge of the matter.
Brazil took custody of the embassy this week after Maduro expelled Argentina’s diplomats in response to President Javier Milei’s criticism of his self-declared election victory.
The diplomatic mission has become a flash-point in regional relations as governments decide how to respond to Maduro’s hardening crackdown on dissent in the wake of the election.
Brazil is also set to take diplomatic responsibility for the Peruvian embassy, after Maduro expelled its diplomatic staff after the vote, accordion to two officials familiar with the situation.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, meanwhile, will hold a call with Mexico’s Andres Manuel López Obrador and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro on Thursday afternoon to try to conclude a joint communique calling for the release of full ballot records from the election, the people said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Maduro has also asked for a call with Lula, although Brazil is organising it for after the discussion with Petro and López Obrador, the people said.
Venezuela’s Information Ministry didn’t immediately answer a request for comments.
Earlier on Thursday, Milei thanked Brazil for taking custody of Argentina’s Embassy in Caracas, at which aides to Venezuela’s opposition leader are sheltering.
Argentine diplomatic staff are leaving the country after being expelled by Maduro, Milei said Thursday in a post on X. The expulsion orders are retaliation for the Argentine government’s condemnation of Venezuela’s electoral “fraud,” Milei added.
“I have no doubt that we will soon reopen our Embassy in a free and democratic Venezuela,” he said. “The ties of friendship that unite Argentina with Brazil are very strong and historic.”
In addition to Argentina and Peru, Maduro also gave diplomats from Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic until Friday to leave the country.
Although he has declared himself the winner of the Sunday election, banned candidate María Corina Machado says she has proof her stand-in, Edmundo González Urrutia, won last Sunday’s vote by a large margin.
The top US diplomat for the Western Hemisphere told the Organisation of American States on Wednesday night that González defeated Maduro “by millions of votes” and that world governments should acknowledge the Venezuelan opposition’s “overwhelming victory.”
A half dozen of Machado’s advisers have sought asylum at the Argentine Embassy since March, and Venezuelan police patrols had been encircling the building as Maduro cracked down on dissent after the disputed vote.
“The custody of the diplomatic headquarters involves the political asylum seekers of the Venezuelan opposition,” Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement detailing the departure of its staff and Brazil’s oversight of its facilities.
On Monday, Lula’s chief foreign affairs adviser told Maduro in a private meeting that the Argentine Embassy must be protected, according to government officials familiar with the matter.
Brazil’s government is also in talks with Uruguay about safeguarding its diplomatic assets in Venezuela, officials said.
Machado thanked Brazil for its willingness to help resolve the embassy stand-off, saying late Wednesday in a post to X that it could contribute a negotiated settlement of the broader election dispute. Her aides said Thursday morning Brazil’s flag had already been raised over the diplomatic mission.
Milei, meanwhile, has had a rocky relationship with Lula. The pair have traded barbs over their ideological differences ever since Argentina’s election campaign last year.
by Manuela Tobias & Simone Iglesias, Bloomberg
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