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Siege of the Argentine Embassy and ambassador's residence in Venezuela
The siege of the Argentine Embassy in Venezuela is a ongoing blockade of the Argentine Embassy and ambassador's residence in Caracas. Movement into and out of the compound was restricted between July 30 to September 1, 2024, on September 7–8, 2024, and from November 23, 2024 to present. The siege was ordered by the government of Nicolás Maduro and is part of the Venezuelan post-electoral crisis.[1] The cause of the siege was the entry of indicted Venezuelan opposition staff members into the ambassador's residence, where they are taking shelter, presumably to avoid arrest. The events have received condemnation from Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, the United States, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, who expressed solidarity with Argentina. BackgroundFriction arose between Argentina's libertarian government and Venezuela's socialist government after Argentine president Javier Milei became a leader of those alleging that Maduro stole the July 2024 presidential election.[2] In March 2024, after opposition candidate María Corina Machado's campaign manager Magalli Meda was indicted in Venezuela for allegedly propagating destabilising political violence, she and five others sought refuge and political asylum at the Argentine Embassy in Venezuela and were permitted to stay at the ambassador's residence.[2] Shortly after, electricity was cut to the building.[3][4][5] On July 28, 2024, presidential elections were held in Venezuela, to elect a new president for a constitutional term of 6 years. The presidential elections were neither free nor fair, and took place in a context in which the government of Nicolás Maduro controls the government and represses political opposition.[6][7][8] On the same day, the National Electoral Council declared Nicolás Maduro the winner with 51.95% of the votes, while Edmundo Gonzales would come in second with 43.18% of the votes. Both María Corina Machado and Edmundo González rejected the NEC results and claimed victory. González, in an act accompanied by Machado, said: "Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened... Our fight continues and we will not rest until the will of the Venezuelan people is respected." Meanwhile, Venezuelans opposed to Nicolás Maduro went out to protest in several localities of the country.[9][10] SiegesOn July 30, Pedro Urruchurtu, a political asylum seeker, reported a siege was taking place.[11] Since the embassy accepted six political dissidents linked to opposition leader María Corina Machado as asylum seekers, the embassy's electricity supply was cut off.[12] In August 2024, Venezuela's top prosecutor (Tarek William Saab) began a criminal investigation against Venezuelan opposition leaders Edmundo González and María Corina Machado for calling on troops to oppose Maduro.[13] On September 2, an arrest warrant was issued for González for the alleged crimes of "usurpation of functions, falsification of public documents, instigation to disobey the law, conspiracy and association".[14] After the election, González had sought refuge secretly in the Dutch Embassy through September 5,[15][16] after which he spent several days in the Spanish embassy in Caracas, was granted asylum, and left on a Spanish Armed Forces flight on September 7, 2024.[17] When Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced his decision to "immediately and unilaterally" revoke Brazil's permission to guard the embassy, which it had held since August 1, "patrols by Venezuelan intelligence services and security forces surrounding the official building in Caracas" were again reported, this time in a formal complaint by the Argentine Foreign Ministry.[18] On September 8, 2024, shortly after presidential candidate Edmundo González arrived in Spain, electricity was restored and the second siege ended.[19] On November 23, 2024, Pedro Urruchurtu, a political asylum seeker at the embassy, reported shortly before 7:00 p.m. VET that hooded officers from the Directorate of Strategic and Tactical Actions of the Bolivarian National Police Corps (DAET) and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service had appeared in the vicinity of the Argentine embassy in Caracas with long guns and had surrounded the diplomatic headquarters. After more than 5 hours of siege, Urruchurtu confirmed that the security agents, as part of their siege, had just cut off the electricity service to the ambassador's residence. He also confirmed that the agents had cut off access on the street, and that drones that "block the mobile signal" had flown over.[citation needed] See alsoReferences
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