Five top aides of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado escaped the country after the US helped them foil a siege of Argentina's Embassy in Caracas where they had been holed up for 15 months.
The group is now on US soil after a “precise operation” to free them, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday evening in a post on X, without elaborating.
Machado, who has spearheaded the strongest movement to end Nicolás Maduro’s 12-year rule, praised the “impeccable and epic operation for the freedom of five heroes of Venezuela.”
Maduro’s government had placed permanent checkpoints surrounding the Embassy, while his security forces took control of a private house neighbouring the residence. The timing of the operation is still unclear, but it was announced when Maduro and other senior officials were in Russia to attend a parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union and its allies.
David Placer, a Venezuelan journalist living in Spain, first reported the escape on his social media accounts.
It is unclear whether the Venezuelan regime will take reprisals against Machado or the hundreds of political prisoners still in its jails, where many have been tortured.
The group — campaign manager Magalli Meda, press chief Claudia Macero, electoral coordinator Humberto Villalobos, adviser for international affairs Pedro Urruchurtu and Vente party leader Omar González — entered Argentina's Embassy early last year when the government issued arrest warrants accusing them of treason and conspiracy. They remained the residence’s only inhabitants after Venezuela expelled Argentine diplomats last summer.
Former minister Fernando Martínez Mottola, initially part of the group, was allowed to leave the Embassy in December and died from health complications two months later.
In a statement, the Presidency of Argentina thanked the US government for its “efforts to uphold the safety and welfare of those who for a long time were under Argentina’s protection from the persecution of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.”
Brazil, which assumed control of the Embassy in August, had previously made a military plane available to take the five to Argentina or elsewhere, two people with direct knowledge of the plans told Bloomberg earlier this year. They failed, along with Argentina’s government, to secure the aides’ safe passage.
Only a few major players have managed to escape Maduro’s grip in recent years. These include former Venezuelan police officer Ivan Simonovis, who escaped from house arrest in 2019 and opposition leader Leopoldo López, who took refuge in the Spanish ambassador’s residence for 18 months before escaping the country in 2020.
Venezuela’s Information Minister did not respond to a request for comment.
Machado has been largely in hiding since Maduro declared his re-election last year, despite evidence that her stand-in candidate Edmundo González Urrutia received a majority of the votes. Machado has continued her struggle from secret locations, while Maduro also faces increasing pressure from US President Donald Trump’s administration.
Roughly 2,500 people were arrested in the aftermath of the vote, including more than 100 minors, in a crackdown on dissent that sent many of Machado’s closest allies into prison, hiding or exile. The government harassed the people in the Embassy by cutting off water and power for extended periods as a way of pressuring her, Machado said in an April interview.
“I remind myself every day that I have many colleagues that are in much worse conditions than I am because at least I have food, I have power, I have water,” she said.
by Bloomberg News
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