MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela: Asylum seeker leaves diplomatic mission

A former Transport and Communications Minister under former President Carlos Andrés Pérez, Martínez Mottola was also CEO of the State-run communications company Cantv

Venezuelan authorities announced Friday that Fernando Martínez Mottola, one of the six asylum-seekers at what used to be Argentina's Embassy in Caracas now guarded by Brazil following the diplomatic breakup, turned up “voluntarily” Thursday before the Public Prosecutor's Office and testified about “a group of members of the extremist organization Vente Venezuela who are fugitives.”

Vente Venezuela is disenfranchised opposition leader María Corina Machado's party, of which six members sought shelter earlier this year at Argentina's mission where they were granted asylum but denied safe passage to the airport by the Bolivarian regime.

This “aforementioned citizen was brought to justice and made a statement at the prosecutor's office regarding the serious violent, conspiratorial and destabilizing events organized from the aforementioned diplomatic headquarters during the last months, after the presidential elections held on July 28,” a statement from the Chavista Government went on.

Martínez Mottola “decided to actively collaborate with the Venezuelan justice system, within the framework of the due process provided for in Article 49 of the Constitution of the Republic,” the document posted on Instagram also mentioned.

Martínez Mottola was an advisor of the opposition Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (PUD) of retired diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, who was forced to go to Spain in exile after claiming he had won the July 28 elections against the National Electoral Council's (CNE) announcement that the incumbent Nicolás Maduro had been chosen for another five-year term starting on Jan. 10 next. A former Transport and Communications Minister under former President Carlos Andrés Pérez, Martínez Mottola was also CEO of the State-run communications company Cantv.

Since Nov. 23, the premises of the former Argentine Embassy were under siege from pro-government troops. In addition, all electricity and water supply was cut off. Caracas' regime has turned a deaf ear to requests from 13 countries, including the United States and Argentina, to allow the dissidents to leave the country. Pedro Urruchurtu, Magali Meda, Omar González, Claudia Macero, and Humberto Villalobos remained inside the mission Friday.

On Dec. 8, the diplomatic crisis between Caracas and Buenos Aires hit another level when an Argentine Border Guard (Gendarmería Nacional) non-commissioned officer was arrested when trying to enter Venezuela and charged with espionage. He claimed his trip was of a personal nature to visit his romantic partner and a child they have in common.

According to the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, Maduro offered the Libertarian administration of Javier Milei to allow the five refugees out in exchange for convicted social leader Milagro Sala. The outlet cited Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo as its source. In fact, Murillo said that Maduro requested the release of former Ecuadorean Vice President Jorge Glas, currently detained in Guayaquil after storming Mexico's Embassy where he was sheltering, and “a person very close to the Venezuelan government imprisoned in Argentina,” whom El Tiempo confirmed to be Sala, who remains under house arrest in the northern province of Jujuy serving a 13-year sentence.

Also Friday, Vente Venezuela denounced this Friday that military officials shot political prisoners in the Ramo Verde jailhouse. Lawyer and human rights activist Tamara Sujú shared images and videos of the incident on the social network. She reported at least three wounded by firearms in Annex A of the prison. She also claimed that officers from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, and the Bolivarian National Guard participated in the operation. According to the NGO Foro Penal, there are 1,877 political prisoners in Venezuela, of which 1,715 are civilians and 162 are military personnel.