MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei and González Urrutia to meet at Casa Rosada

González Urrutia will be on tour ahead of the Jan. 10 inaugurationic (GETTY IMAGES)

President Javier Milei will be meeting Saturday in Casa Rosada with Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, who has been recognized by many countries -including Argentina- as the legitimate winner of the controversial July 28 elections where the incumbent Nicolás Maduro was announced as victor for a new term starting on Jan. 10.

The announcement of the gathering in Buenos Aires was met by Caracas' Bolivarian regime offering US$ 100,000 for González Urrutia, who sought asylum in Spain in September when an arrest warrant against him was issued on charges of “conspiracy” and “association to commit a crime.” The retired diplomat who picked the baton from disenfranchised leader María Corina Machado will be touring four countries in the days leading to what he insisted would be his inauguration and not Maduro's, his press management explained on social media.

Venezuelan prosecutors said González Urrutia is wanted for “conspiracy, complicity in the use of violent acts against the Republic, usurpation of functions, forgery of documents, legitimization of capital, disregard of State institutions, instigation to disobey the laws and association to commit crimes, among others.”

“This Saturday, January 4, President González Urrutia will be received by the President of the Republic of Argentina, Javier Milei. The meeting will take place at the Casa Rosada,” González Urrutia's team posted. It also invited “the entire Venezuelan community residing in Argentina” to meet at the doors of the Argentine Executive to “accompany” the former Unitarian Democratic Platform (Plataforma Unitaria Democrática - PUD) nominee.

With diplomatic ties already severed as five members of Machado's team remain inside what used to be the Argentine Embassy in Caracas now guarded by Brazil, (albeit with no electricity or running water) waiting for a safe passage to the airport, tensions between Buenos Aires and Caracas climbed one more notch on Dec. 8 after a Border Guard (Gendarmería Nacional) non commissioned officer was arrested when trying to enter the country to visit his romantic partner and their common child and charged with espionage.

On Thursday, Argentina's Libertarian administration filed the case before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.