(Reuters)-Venezuelan opposition said on Wednesday that President Nicolás Maduro’s government was surprised by the departure of five people detained at the Argentine embassy residence in Caracas amid the official silence about the episode in the country’s capital.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the release of allies of opposition leader María Corina Machado from the Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas, where they had lived since March 2024, following the announcement of arrest warrants against them.
The Command Contem Venezuela, a platform that supports Machado and former presidential candidate Edmundo González, gave no details of the operation he described on social network X as “coordinated by the United States and other democratic allies.”
The statement was later excluded and replaced by identical communication that, however, did not mention the coordination “by the United States and other democratic allies” in its first paragraph, in an edition attributed to the fact that Rubio has already mentioned the issue, a person familiar with the case.
The Ministry of Communications did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Thanks to the governments of the United States and Argentina for acting with determination. What they did is more than an operation, it is a clear message to the country and the world,” said González in X.
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Group members will tell their stories “in the coming days,” added the platform, who also thanked US President Donald Trump, Rubio and Argentine president Javier Milei.
He also thanked the President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country has the custody of the Argentine residence after the expulsion of the country’s employees in mid -last year.
The Brazilian government said in a statement on Wednesday that it repeatedly tried to get saved from Venezuelan opponents.
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“The repeated managers were not met, which extended the difficult humanitarian situation at the residence of the Argentine embassy in Caracas, which was surrounded by security forces. The announcement of the exit puts an end to this episode and the drama experienced by the asylums for more than 400 days,” the government said in Brasilia through a note.
Two sources told Reuters on Wednesday that 85-year-old Machado’s mother, Corina Parisca de Machado, also left Venezuela safely.
Since the election, Corina, who is hidden in Venezuela, had often been complaining about security forces that gather in front of her mother’s house.
