https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-brazil-diplomacy-f8661fdab3c154b839bc9d48954cbd72
Tensions in South America have been rising since the highly disputed Venezuelan election in July. Despite pre-election polls that showed opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia had more supporters by a landslide, President Nicolas Maduro still claimed that he won the election. Protests against Maduro’s regime have resulted in countless arrests and even murders of those who oppose Maduro. Argentina, whose government is one of the main supporters of Maduro’s opposition, broke off relations with Venezuela and passed custody of its diplomatic mission to Brazil, another country in support of Maduro’s opposition. Six Venezuelan members of the opposition fled to the mission seeking asylum after Maduro put out warrants for their arrest on account of “conspiracy”. Earlier this month, Venezuela’s government stated that Brazil can no longer represent Argentina’s affairs, claiming the mission was being used to plan the assassination of Maduro. According to Megalli Meda, one of the Venezuelans taking refuge in the mission, the revocation of Brazilian custody could be part of a plan to raid the mission and arrest her and the other members of the opposition currently residing there.
This event, the recent arrests of Spanish, Czech, and American nationals, and the violence against anti-government protesters, all show that Maduro is scared he is going to lose power and willing to go to any lengths to maintain his control of the Venezuelan government. He is tightening his grip out of fear, which is typical of a corrupt leader. I have no doubts that his plan is to somehow arrest the opposition members that are in the Argentine mission, but raiding an embassy is against international law so if Maduro was to go through with a raid, there would be severe consequences and retaliation from all countries involved, as well as other global actors like the UN.
The best thing to do would be to remove the asylum seekers from Venezuela altogether, but judging by the fact that they have not done that yet I would assume it is not as simple of a solution as it sounds. There are many other countries which Argentina could choose to take over for Brazil in running the embassy—Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and the U.S all have stated that they do not recognize Maduro as the winner of the election. The most difficult part would be transferring the custody of the embassy to the next chosen country without risking the safety of the six asylum seekers residing there.