Front entrance of the Argentinian embassy in Caracas. Photo: Miguel Gutiérrez/EFE.
According to Argentinian government sources, consulted by the far-right outlet Infobae, seven fugitive leaders of the far-right Vente Venezuela party have entered the Argentinian Embassy in Caracas. The current president of Argentina, Javier Milei, and Foreign Minister Diana Mondino appear to have “accepted” the fugitives from the Venezuelan judiciary entering the Argentinian diplomatic mission in Venezuela and to remain there “under asylum.”
These individuals from Vente Venezuela include Magalli Meda (who held the position of national campaign manager for MarĂa Corina Machado), Humberto Villalobos (electoral coordinator), Pedro Urruchurtu (international relations coordinator), and Omar González (campaign manager in the state of Anzoátegui), who reported their escape to far-right news outlets on Wednesday, March 27.
On March 20, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab revealed details about destabilizing plans orchestrated by members of the Vente Venezuela party in Barinas state, and issued an arrest warrant for these individuals via the Public Ministry, accusing them of planning to carry out terrorist attacks to push for the lifting of MarĂa Corina Machado’s long-standing disqualification from holding public office.
A confession by Emil Brandt Ulloa, MarĂa Corina Machado’s Barinas state campaign manager and one of the detainees involved in the plot, revealed that Magalli Meda and Henry Alviárez gave him instructions from Caracas to launch a destabilization plan.
Brandt further explained that through violence, they intended to provoke the actions of military and police officials, present themselves as the unjustly wronged victims of this violence, and progressively destabilize the country from Barinas. For this plot, the Public Ministry issued a total of nine arrest warrants, of which two have come to fruition and seven remain pending.
Of those seven, Oswaldo Bracho, Pedro Urruchurtu, Omar González Moreno, Humberto Villalobos, Claudia Macero, Fernando MartĂnez Mottola, and Magalli Meda are now under the protection of the right-wing Argentinian government led by Javier Milei.
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Massive layoffs in Argentina
Javier Milei has also reported plans to lay off 70,000 government workers in the coming months. “We have already eliminated 50,000 public positions, and now we are going to eliminate 20,000 more until we reach 70,000,” Milei announced on Tuesday during a closing speech at the International Economic Forum of the Americas, just weeks after the scandal regarding the salary raises for him and his ministers.
In addition, he boasted of having frozen public infrastructure projects, cut off some funds to provincial governments, and canceled more than 200,000 social welfare plans, which he described as “corrupt.” It’s all part of a plan announced by Milei to achieve fiscal balance at any cost this year, to be accomplished by targeting and affecting mostly those below the poverty level.
Milei’s job cuts are expected to face pushback from Argentina’s powerful unions and could lead to a decline in the president’s already low approval rating. The salary raising scandal forced him to announce the cancelation of the salary increase for senior government officials, including himself, for which he attempted to blame former President Cristina Fernández.
Shortly after Milei’s statements, the Casa Rosada, office of the presidency, explained that the number of contracts that would fall was not the one mentioned by the head of state. It warned that “70,000 is the number of contracts currently under review,” and that “the layoffs will be in stages,” avoiding classifying Milei’s statements as any kind of presidential error.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana PerdigĂłn, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
