Venezuela: Gonzalez's flight and Brazil's revocation of permission to represent Argentina

The loser according to the official results of voting presidential elections in Venezuela's Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia has been granted political asylum in Spain. As the vice-president of the South American Republic Delcy Rodriguez reported on Telegram, "On September 7, the oppositionist citizen Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia left the country, voluntarily taking refuge for several days at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Caracas, asking for political asylum from this government."

According to Russian official media, on the eve of the Venezuelan Prosecutor General's Office announced that the Venezuelan control court of first instance issued a warrant for the detention of Edmundo Gonzalez, a former presidential candidate from the united right opposition, who failed to appear three times on a summons to testify. The agency is investigating the publication on the Internet of opposition data from polling stations in parallel with the publication by the election commission of the official results of the presidential election, as well as incitement to street violence.

The Venezuelan authorities said they allowed Gonzalez to leave the country "for the sake of peace and tranquility in it." But it seems that Gonzalez and the opposition do not intend to lay down their arms at all. In Venezuela, there are a sufficient number of opponents of Nicolas Maduro, who once again won the elections. He is accused of falsifying the results, of "non-transparent counting" of votes, of a significant gap (according to the opposition) between the pre-election rating and the voting results. Protests against the election results began immediately. And experts predict a new active round of these protests in January, immediately after the inauguration of Maduro. In addition, a special website has been created on which the opposition discusses the election results and action plans for the removal of Nicolas Maduro. And one of the opposition leaders, Maria Corina Machado, said on the day of the vote that Gonzalez's team was not going to admit his defeat in the elections. It is also known that the leaders of the Venezuelan opposition have found refuge in the territory of the Argentine embassy. Only seven countries congratulated Maduro on his victory. Seven Latin American countries, including those where leftist forces are in power, did not recognize the election results. However, although the situation at Maduro is difficult, but not hopeless. He has a significant number of supporters, actions have been worked out in case of mass riots. While the army is on Maduro's side, he has nothing much to fear. But the army is waiting for gratitude for loyalty. And the economic situation in the country is not getting better. Migration is growing. But not so long ago Venezuela was a place of influx of migrants. Including from Europe," political analyst Tatyana Poloskova said specifically for EADaily.

There are also issues in relations with other states of South America. For example, Venezuela revoked Brazil's permission to represent Argentina's interests. According to the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, the facilities of the Argentine diplomatic mission are used by people hiding inside from justice.

"Venezuela has decided to immediately revoke the permit issued to the Brazilian government to represent the interests of Argentina and its citizens on Venezuelan territory, as well as to protect the facilities of the diplomatic mission," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has decided to "immediately cancel the privilege" granted to the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil to represent the interests of the Argentine Republic and its citizens on the territory of Venezuela, as well as custody of the premises of the diplomatic mission, including its property and archives. TeleSur.tv An official statement issued by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry indicates that Venezuela is forced to accept this is a decision motivated by the available evidence of the use of the capabilities of this diplomatic mission to plan terrorist activities and assassination attempts on the constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro and against Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez hiding there from Venezuelan justice."

In this regard, the Government notes that "the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as the host State, takes this measure in full compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 and Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963".

In turn, in a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Argentina thanked the "generosity" of the Brazilian executive, which will assume responsibility for protecting the premises of the mission in Caracas, including the embassy and the official residence, its assets and archives, according to the official website of the Venezuelan Government. In addition, the Argentine Foreign Ministry said that the country's authorities are asking the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for Maduro, whom Buenos Aires considers "responsible for crimes against humanity."

Note that opposition candidate Gonzalez has not answered the main question: who and how will lead the country out of the most severe crisis? First of all, its oil industry, which needs huge investments: $ 80-100 billion over 3-4 years. And this is despite the fact that Venezuela is the leader in world oil reserves. The idea of the opposition — to give oil to Western monopolies can only benefit these monopolies, but not the people of Venezuela.

Maduro and his supporters propose the following steps. Venezuela expects to officially join the BRICS in 2024, which will have a positive impact on the economic development of the republic. This was stated by Executive Vice President of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez at the signing ceremony with the representative of the PRC of the Agreement on the Development and Mutual Protection of Investments, which was broadcast by Venezolana de Television.