Javier Milei received the Venezuelan Edmundo González Urrutia with the honors of an elected president. Together they went out to the balcony of the Argentine Executive headquarters and waved their hands, a sign of an imminent political victory. For the visitor it was one of the most “exciting” encounters of his life. “Thank you Milei,” hundreds of migrants from Venezuela greeted him from the Plaza de Mayo. The former diplomat, who claims victory in the elections on July 28, began a regional tour in Buenos Aires that does not know where it ends, but which has the clear message of aligning a good part of Latin America in the rejection of the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro, on January 10. González Urrutia said he would return to Caracas that day. The Minister of the Interior and Justice, Diosdado Cabello, warned that the former opposition candidate, for whose head the police offered a reward of $100,000, would be immediately arrested if he set foot on Venezuelan territory.
The decision to begin his journey through Buenos Aires is partly due to the fact that since last July Argentina has led the countries that have challenged Maduro’s re-election with the greatest vehemence. Bilateral relations are broken and Brazil administers the embassy where five opponents are asylum. The situation has worsened after the arrest in early December on the Colombian-Venezuelan border of the Argentine gendarme Nahuel Gallo. The madurismo claims that he tried to participate in a conspiracy plot, but has not offered any evidence in this regard. The detention has been condemned by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The media estimate that González Urrutia will not expose himself to that situation and would carry out a symbolic swearing-in in another country.
The “Thank you Milei” therefore had these antecedents and a verbal exchange between the foreign ministries of the two politically opposed countries that has no precedent. For Argentina, González Urrutia has been the “undisputed winner” and that is why the host president melted into a hug that is supportive and that also has his sights set on the changes that will take place in Washington starting January 20 when Donald Trump returns to the White House. Argentina wants to be the main interlocutor in the United States. It assumes that the Venezuelan issue will be relevant for the new Republican administration.
Scope of a tour
González Urrutia arrived in Buenos Aires from Madrid. In addition to the meeting with Milei, he plans to talk in Montevideo with the outgoing president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, who will remain in office until March 4. Lacalle Pou has unambiguously supported the Venezuelan opposition. His successor, Yamadú Orsi, of the center-left Frente Amplio, is expected to be more in tune with Brazil. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva decided that only his ambassador in Caracas, Gilvania Oliveira, would participate in Maduro’s inauguration. Bilateral ties have deteriorated due to the disinterest of the Venezuelan authorities in presenting the minutes that validate the victory at the polls of the current president. Colombia follows in the footsteps of Brazil. Its ambassador Víctor Rengifo will witness a ceremony in which only Maduro’s main allied presidents, Miguel Díaz-Canel and Daniel Ortega, the colleagues of Cuba and Nicaragua, respectively, will participate.
González Urrutia will also travel to Panama, the United States and, finally, the Dominican Republic. All the countries visited bring together almost a million Venezuelan migrants. Chile, Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador were not part of the journey. It was noted, however, that he could make a brief stopover in one of those countries. “Where does the tour end?” the ´Efecto Cocuyo` portal asked. He also recalled that both the former candidate and the true leader of the opposition space, the right-wing María Corina Machado, remain silent about what the move on January 10 will be. Milei was nevertheless informed of the possible movements. Sources from the Argentine Government cited by the newspaper ‘La Nación’ stated that the Venezuelan opposition is “working” in that direction. “They are keeping it in a closed box because their plans cannot transcend. It is understood that the objective is to really assume what the people gave them. I did not ask the way, the form, the methodology,” said the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich.
Six days before the scheduled events, Venezuela tends to become militarized. Both the ruling party and the opposition called on their followers to mobilize and once again put on stage the deep differences that separate them and that extend over time the internal conflict that erupted with force starting in 2013.
