The year-long stand-off between five prisoners in a mansion and Maduro's regime

For the past year, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government has besieged a mansion in eastern Caracas.

Armed security forces constantly surround the Argentine Embassy and have threatened to enter at least four times. The fuse box powering the building was removed in November. Food deliveries are rarely allowed.

Holed up inside are five members of Venezuela’s opposition, some of the most trusted allies of María Corina Machado, the person who has come closest to defeating Maduro in his 12 years in power.

They entered the building a year ago this week after the government issued arrest warrants accusing them of treason and conspiracy. Months later, Maduro claimed victory in a widely disputed presidential election and jailed hundreds of protesters. The five became prisoners of the mansion, unwilling to turn themselves over and unable to leave.

They are the Embassy’s only inhabitants, after the regime expelled Argentine diplomats last summer and local staff stopped going out of fear in December. Brazil assumed protection of the Embassy and those inside in August and has been able to mediate with the Venezuelan government for some of the refugees’ requests. But talks to provide them safe passage out of the Embassy — and the country — remain stalled.

“It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, and one tries to stay focused, with high spirits, but it’s difficult,” said Pedro Urruchurtu, 34, who serves as Machado’s adviser for international affairs and is one of the people living inside the diplomatic headquarters.

Benigno Alarcón, director of the political studies center at Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas, said the government is using the siege to exert pressure on Machado, who remains in hiding.

“It’s become a sword of Damocles hanging over María Corina’s head,” Alarcón said. “In a way they’re saying, ‘If tomorrow you try something extreme, we will too.’”

The regime, for its part, denies any siege exists. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has instead accused the people sheltering in the building of “charades.” Government representatives did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

As the five mark their anniversary in Argentina’s Embassy, Venezuela’s political stand-off has stagnated amid a series of US policy flip-flops. US President Donald Trump sent envoy Richard Grenell to meet with Maduro in January — suggesting a thaw in relations between the two countries — and received an agreement to accept Venezuelans deported from the United States. Then the Trump administration ordered oil giant Chevron Corp to stop operations in Venezuela and sent a group of more than 200 Venezuelan migrants and alleged gang members to a feared El Salvador prison, a move Maduro denounced. Some Venezuela watchers believe there’s tension between Trump’s aims of removing migrants and restoring democracy.

“What I think we’re seeing now is a conflict of two potential goals,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “If he [Trump] sequences them better, we'll begin to see fewer conflicts between the pursuit of these two goals.”

Urruchurtu’s days consist of waking up early to read, usually on stoicism or history, followed by time spent praying, meditating and writing in his journal. He checks emails and catches up on work before lifting weights in the afternoon. The routine gives him structure and helps him get through the day, he said.

Omar González, a 75-year-old journalist and former lawmaker, wakes up at 3am to begin a four-hour surveillance shift. The group rotates keeping watch over the property and relies on a homemade alarm system of pots and pans to warn each other should government forces move in.

González and Urruchurtu share the largely deserted mansion with opposition campaign manager Magalli Meda, press chief Claudia Macero and electoral coordinator Humberto Villalobos. Former minister Fernando Martínez Mottola, initially part of the group, was allowed to leave the Embassy in December and died from health complications two months later. (Bloomberg interviewed González and Urruchurtu via phone and WhatsApp messages.)

For meals, they split canned goods — tuna, sardines and sausages — most of which had been stockpiled inside the embassy during the first days of their stay. They’ve tried bringing in fresh supplies using delivery apps, but drivers have been detained or arrested, so it rarely works. Plastic rain barrels provide water, while a small solar panel recharges electronic devices.

“We’re essentially surviving and living off reserves,” Urruchurtu said. “We eat just enough and keep whatever is left for the next meal, and so on.”

It’s not the first time prominent Venezuelan opposition members have sought refuge inside foreign embassies in Caracas to avoid arrest. Opposition leader Leopoldo López hid in the Spanish ambassador’s residence for 18 months before escaping the country in 2020. And last year, presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia hid in the Dutch Embassy for almost six weeks before being forced to flee to Spain.

But never before has the Maduro regime so brazenly harassed a diplomatic headquarters. While the government initially agreed to let Machado’s aides seek asylum in Argentina, they later backtracked on the deal, claiming they had knowledge the aides would use the safe passage to flee to another destination.

“It’s a pattern of state terrorism administered by Maduro,” said Tomás Arias, one of the asylum seekers’ lawyers. “In this case, since they didn’t submit to the real threat of being captured and sent to detention centers, what they did was turn the Embassy into a prison.”

Brazil has made a military plane available to take the five to Argentina or elsewhere, two people with direct knowledge of the plans said. However, in February, Brazil’s most recent diplomatic effort to grant them safe passage out of the country failed.

Urruchurtu said the group is open to discussion on leaving Venezuela, so long as any solution remains within the framework of international law. But Interior Minister Cabello warned last year, after the blocked attempt to seek asylum in Argentina, that “there is no safe passage for those who do not love this country.” Meanwhile, the government’s attempt to prosecute the five appears to be in limbo.

In the afternoon, the group is visited by macaws, the big, brilliantly colored parrots that fly over Caracas. Once the sun sets, they sit by candlelight and consider their future.