The Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas, where five members of the Venezuelan opposition are staying to avoid arrest, has become a “prison,” one opposition member staying there said on Saturday.
The residence has been without power since late last month, Magalli Meda, adviser to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, wrote on X.
“It’s a violation of our human rights. It’s become an embassy prison,” she wrote.
Photo: AP
Venezuelan Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello said there is no “siege,” and blamed the cutoff on a lack of payment for services.
The opposition members have been holed up in the residence since warrants were issued for their arrest in March accusing them of attempts to destabilize the country.
Water supplies have also been disrupted, they said.
A sixth Maduro opponent who had been also been sheltering in the embassy, Fernando Martinez Mottola, surrendered a week ago and is on conditional release.
In July, Venezuela held contested presidential elections in which both Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez claimed victory. The opposition has presented detailed vote counts in its favor, while Maduro has not.
Gonzalez has since fled to Spain, while Machado, who was barred from running in the July election, is in hiding.
Argentina and Peru backed the opposition’s election win, causing diplomatic friction with the Maduro government. Brazil has since taken over operations of both countries’ embassies in Venezuela.
Meda said the Maduro government has hindered other nations’ diplomats from coming to meet with them and have threatened to expel foreign diplomats if they get involved in the case.
“No ambassador has come to this embassy. Not one. Have they tried? Surely some would have wanted to,” she said.
Venezuela and Argentina are currently in a diplomatic feud over the detention of an Argentine security officer in Venezuela earlier this month on charges of terrorism.
Venezuelan prosecutors said the officer, Nahuel Agustin Gallo, was part of a group planning “terrorist actions ... with the support of international far-right groups.”
Gallo’s family said he traveled as a tourist to visit his girlfriend and their son who were in Venezuela.
The administration of Argentine President Javier Milei denounced the arrest as an “abduction” based on “a big lie.”
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