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.”
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS