The Venezuelan Red Cross (CRV) on April 12 revealed that it had provided assistance to the five Venezuelans who have been seeking asylum in Argentina’s embassy in Caracas for over a year.
The CRV published a statement reading: “Based on our fundamental principles of Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity, and Universality, and with the approval of all parties involved, we hereby inform you that today, Saturday, April 12, 2025, we have provided healthcare to citizens residing at the Embassy of the Argentine Republic in Caracas.”
The statement continued: “We reiterate our willingness to assist those in need, without discrimination of any kind.”
Since March 20, 2024, the five Venezuelans—all aides to Nicolás Maduro’s political opponent, Maria Corina Machado—have been seeking refuge in Argentina’s embassy in Venezuela. They went into hiding after Maduro’s government announced warrants for Machado and a number of her political allies.
The group initially consisted of six people. In December, Fernando Martínez Mottola left the embassy and, according to the Venezuelan government, turned himself into the attorney general’s office. He died in February of this year.
Now, Omar González, Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli, Magalli Meda, Claudia Macero, and Humberto Villalobos remain.
The five aides have repeatedly complained of water shortages and intermittent electricity, the latter of which they say has caused much of their food to spoil, according to Al Jazeera.
They claim to be eating canned food and to be dependent on a solar-powered electric fan with charging ports for power, with Meda telling news agency EFE at the start of April that police officers had blocked efforts to deliver drinking water to the embassy.
In August 2023, Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered a “broad and diverse restructuring” of the CRV. The restructuring was to entail the dismissal of the then-president Mario Villaroel and the then-members of the board of directors. A restructuring board was formed, headed by Ricardo Cusanno, the former president of the Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce, the country’s biggest business union.
The current president of the Venezuelan Red Cross is Luis Farías, the CRV’s former communications director (2018-2024).
In March of this year, Venezuela’s unicameral parliament revealed that it would create a law to “protect” the CRV. The law was reportedly proposed by Farías and had received support from other members of the organization.
After the parliament announced its plans to implement the law, the president of the parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, said, “The previous president of the Venezuelan Red Cross was a president for […] 46 years, and in those 46 years he didn’t hold a single election to choose the board of directors of the Red Cross, and he operated from his mansion in Miami.”
Rodríguez accused Villaroel of deliberately “deteriorating” the state of the CRV and “obtaining enormous personal benefits through extortion, blackmail, and allying with Venezuela’s enemies.”
Featured image credit:
Image: 2019 anti-Maduro protest in Caracas
Photographer: Alex Cabello Leiva
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marcha-Caracas-02-02-2019-Juan_Guaido.jpg
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
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