(Bloomberg) — The Venezuelan government has backtracked on a deal to allow six aides to the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to seek asylum in Argentina, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
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The Nicolas Maduro The government in April never issued documents granting them safe passage into the country, claiming they knew Machado’s aides would use them to flee to another destination, said a senior Argentine official, who asked not to be named because the conversations are confidential. Contact between the two governments stopped shortly afterwards, he added.
“There is no safe passage for those who do not love this country,” Diosdado Cabello, vice president of the Socialist Party and close Maduro ally, said on state television on May 15.
Machado’s campaign manager Magalli Meda, along with top advisers Pedro Urruchurtu, Claudia Macero and three others, took refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas in March after the Venezuelan prosecutor ordered their arrest for alleged involvement in a plot to destabilize Maduro’s government .
Tensions between the two nations have since increased, with Maduro often calling Argentine President Javier Milei a “neo-Nazi” and a “puppet” during televised speeches.
Maduro’s refusal to let the six aides leave the country in April came at the last minute, the people said, after plane tickets had been purchased and Argentina had agreed to process their asylum.
Argentina has since contacted other countries in the region to discuss options that could pressure Maduro to allow them to leave safely, the senior official said. The Venezuelan Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The arrest warrants for Machado’s team came amid a crackdown on dissent ahead of July elections, in which the winner of the opposition primaries has been barred from participating. Maduro’s government has already issued 15 arrest warrants against Machado’s aides and allies, nine of whom are already in jail.
–With help from Manuela Tobias and Patrick Gillespie.
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