Venezuela fails to comply with agreement and must grant safe passage to asylum seekers at the Argentine embassy: sources

The Government of Argentina hopes that the region will demand that Venezuela comply with the Convention on Diplomatic Asylum and grant “without conditions” safe passage for six Venezuelan asylees to leave the residence of the Argentine embassy in Caracas, said two government sources in Buenos Aires.

The diplomatic dispute began in March, when six members of the team of the Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, requested asylum at the headquarters of the Argentine embassy in Venezuela, after the prosecutor’s office in Caracas issued arrest warrants against them. for conspiracy.

Shortly after, the Argentine Foreign Minister, Diana Mondino, confirmed that the Government of the ultra-liberal Javier Milei He granted Machado’s collaborators the “status” of political asylum.

“Venezuela is not issuing safe-conduct passes, it is not complying with what was agreed upon or with the Diplomatic Asylum Convention” that dates back to 1954, said one of the sources. “In the official Argentine residence in Caracas is the entire Machado campaign office, who are politically persecuted (…) they have to leave Caracas because their physical integrity is in danger,” he added.

On April 5th Venezuelan authorities said they had granted safe passage. “We have given safe passage for the six Venezuelans who are there. We are waiting for Argentina to take them to Buenos Aires,” said the official Venezuelan source in April.

However, the information was denied by Argentine sources.

“It has been 50 days since this began and since then there has been dialogue (with other foreign ministers in the region). It is likely that other countries will soon begin to speak out asking for a resolution of this issue,” added the Buenos Aires source.

The “expectation of the Argentine government is that the region demands that Venezuela respect and comply with the Convention,” said another source with knowledge of the conversations. “Venezuela must unconditionally grant safe-conduct permits for the six asylum seekers to leave the residence.”

The Venezuelan Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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