Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (left) and Argentinian Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (right). File photo: AP.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry of Argentina has proposed the name of the current Vice President of Parlasur, Óscar Laborde, to Congress as an ideal candidate for the position.
The government of Argentina has proposed the name of Óscar Laborde, who is currently serving as the vice president of Parlasur, to assume the position of Argentina’s ambassador to Venezuela.
This was stated on Thursday, May 5, by Argentine Foreign Affairs Minister Santiago Cafiero, before the Foreign Relations Commission of the Argentine Senate. Cafiero defended President Alberto Fernández’s decision to rebuild diplomatic relations with Venezuela.
“We had a charge d’affaires and now we are going to have an ambassador. What we want is to move forward in rebuilding the relationship,” Cafiero said.
Laborde, a former leader of the Communist Party of Argentina, will lead—parliament approval provided—the embassy in Venezuela, which has been in the hands of a charge d’affaires since 2015 when the then government of Mauricio Macri severed diplomatic relations with Caracas.
https://twitter.com/AliciaCastroAR/status/1501910612116447234
Laborde was mayor of Avellaneda during 1999-2003 and a former ambassador of the Civil Society Council in the Argentine Foreign Ministry.
Tensions within Argentina
When the Argentinian government, headed by President Alberto Fernandez, expressed its willingness to resume full relations with Venezuela, using the argument that even the Biden administration had initiated negotiations with the government of Nicolás Maduro, many in Argentina, Venezuela and the region associated the move as an attempt to access Venezuelan oil in a world scenario of increasing prices, not just of oil but of food and all energy resources.
Alicia Castro, a well respected politician and former ambassador of Argentina to the UK and Venezuela, posted a meme showing President Biden laughing during a phone call with President Maduro, who looks very serious. In the edited meme, Biden is asking Maduro, “What’s up, you’ve been lost.”
In her tweet Castro criticizes the erratic Argentinian diplomatic approach towards Venezuela as a continuation of former President Macri’s approach just to please US authorities. She associated the recent announcement of Alberto Fernández towards Venezuela as motivated by the scramble for oil.
Many in Argentina see Alicia Castro as the next minister for Foreign Affairs in an eventual new administration led by Cristina Fernández. Argentina will hold its next presidential elections in 2023, and the cracks between Cristina Fernández and Alberto Fernández are more than evident, as they often surface in the political debate in the country.
Featured image: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (left) and Argentinian Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (right). File photo: AP.
(Últimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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