Buenos Aires, Jan. 10 (NA) — Official spokespeople for the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva confirmed this Saturday that Brazil will cease to represent Argentina before Venezuela, a role it has held since mid-2024 following the expulsion of Argentine diplomats by the regime headed by Nicolás Maduro. Brazil's departure from the diplomatic headquarters in Caracas, located in the Las Mercedes district, forces Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to seek a new custodian for its interests and official residence. According to sources from the Casa Rosada, the country emerging as the strongest candidate to take this place is Italy, thanks to the ideological and personal rapport between President Javier Milei and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The reasons for Brasilia's "exasperation" Although the Itamaraty Palace avoided giving technical details, the decision was precipitated by a series of gestures from the Casa Rosada that "were the last straw." The post that caused discord: A post by Milei on social media X, where he celebrated the pressure from Donald Trump to "liberate" Venezuela and showed a picture of Lula hugging Maduro, was received in Brasilia as an intolerable provocation. Clash over the use of force: Brazil leads a bloc (along with Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay) that condemns the military intervention by the U.S. Argentina, in turn, heads the opposing bloc that supports Washington's action. Ties to bolsonarism: Milei's relationship with the Jair Bolsonaro family and his recent participation in Brazil's CPAC have kept tensions at their peak. The factor of asylum seekers One of the most sensitive points of this representation was the protection of the official residence, where six Venezuelan opposition leaders linked to María Corina Machado were sheltered. Although these individuals were rescued by U.S. forces in the middle of last year, the physical premises still require sovereign protection to prevent looting or expropriation. From the Casa Rosada, the reaction was succinct: "It is a decision by Brazil. The possibility that Italy will assume the representation would not only resolve the diplomatic void but also consolidate the Rome-Buenos Aires-Washington axis in the new political architecture that Milei seeks to impose in the region. It is expected that in the coming hours, the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs will issue an official communiqué to inform the next steps and confirm whether it will indeed be the Meloni government that protects Argentina's assets in Venezuelan territory.
