(Washington) The Venezuelan embassy in Washington, whose staff supported the opponent Juan Guaidó, announced Friday its closure after the Venezuelan opposition officially put an end to the “interim government” of the latter.
Juan Guaidó declared himself interim president in January 2019, receiving broad international support. The Venezuelan diplomats then stationed in the American capital, loyal to President Nicolas Maduro, had ended up returning to Venezuela after the Organization of American States had agreed to have an opposition envoy sit in their place.
The embassy building had then been occupied for several weeks from April 2019 by supporters of Nicolas Maduro, resulting in tense face-to-face meetings with supporters of Juan Guaidó demonstrating in the street, until the eviction of the occupants by the police.
But Mr. Guaidó failed to oust Nicolas Maduro, and the international support he enjoyed gradually withered. At the end of December 2022, three of Venezuela’s main opposition parties approved the removal of its “interim government”, which they had nevertheless supported when it was created in January 2019.
Following this decision, the embassy “and all its representatives have formally ceased to exercise their functions” as of Thursday, the diplomatic representation said in a press release, assuring that it regrets that Venezuelan nationals in the United States are thus deprived of consular services.
The outgoing ambassador, Carlos Vecchio, regretted in a statement “the political, economic and moral error” made by the opposition in ending the interim of Juan Guaidó, and considered that Nicolas “Maduro (was) the alone to benefit from this decision.