Argentine diplomats recounted experiences during tensions in Venezuela

EFE Agency

***They said they spent hours without sleep, and that they had to sell property and withdraw their children from school before leaving.**

Four flights, more than 30 hours of travel, a week with almost no sleep and the challenge of leaving behind 20 years of life in just 72 hours were some of the circumstances that marked the departure of Argentine diplomats from Venezuela after the decision of the Government of Nicolás Maduro to expel them from the country.

“We had to leave the residence and the embassy within 72 hours. A team of five diplomats, each with their families, a total of 14 people. Schools for the children had to be closed, leases had to be cancelled, cars had to be sold,” said Andrés Mangiarotti, chargé d’affaires of the Argentine embassy in Caracas, speaking to the press after landing this Saturday at the Ministro Pistarini International Airport in Buenos Aires.

Maduro’s announcement came on Monday night, after a series of statements by the Argentine government and the decision of Javier Milei’s executive not to recognize the results of the previous day’s elections that, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), gave the Chavista leader reelection.

Although the climate before the election was “tense,” Mangiarotti acknowledged that they did not expect to have to “escape” the country in such a short time and noted that some diplomats even had to leave homes where they had lived for the past 20 years.

Since the day after the elections on July 28, he added, the Argentine embassy residence was under surveillance by the Venezuelan police, it suffered “intimidation” and power cuts, and on at least one occasion police cars showed up during the night with armed and hooded men.

“They were quite tense days for the whole team. We had been sleeping for three hours,” said the diplomat, who, along with the rest of the embassy staff, undertook a journey of more than 30 hours with stops on the Portuguese island of Madeira, another in Lisbon and a final one in Madrid, before leaving for Buenos Aires.

Although Maduro’s government also expelled diplomatic personnel from Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay for their “interference-making actions and statements” regarding the elections, the Argentine case acquired particular relevance due to concerns about the situation of the six Venezuelan opponents of the government who have been sheltered in the embassy residence since March.

“They fear for their lives, they feared that someone would come for them,” said Mangiarotti, who stressed that the asylum seekers “still have immunity” after Brazil took control of the diplomatic headquarters on Thursday following the expulsion of Argentine personnel.

“The residence is under the custody of the Brazilian government and the regime should not attempt anything because it is protected by the inviolability of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” said Argentine Deputy Foreign Minister Leopoldo Sahores, who was there to receive the diplomats, in a conversation with reporters at the airport.