Five Venezuelan dissidents rescued from the shutdown Argentine embassy in Caracas confirmed at a weekend press conference that they escaped Venezuela thanks to a “precise operation” carried out by the United States.
The five Venezuelan dissidents — Pedro Urruchurtu, Magallí Meda, Claudia Macero, Humberto Villalobos, and Ómar González — are close associates of opposition leader María Corina Machado, who has remained in hiding for months after facing threats from the ruling socialist regime.
The five dissidents sought refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas in March 2024 and remained there for 14 months after being targeted by the regime’s “Bolivarian Fury” dissident persecution campaign and accused of joining unproven assassination plots against socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and members of his top brass. A sixth dissident, 70-year-old Fernando Martínez Mottola, also sought refuge with the group, but he voluntarily turned himself in to Venezuelan authorities in December and died from a stroke in February.
The embassy has remained in Brazilian custody since August after Maduro abruptly cut ties with Argentina and several other Latin American countries that refused to acknowledge his “victory” in the fraudulent July 2024 presidential election. Maduro kept the embassy in a constant state of siege, cutting its access to running water and power, stealing the building’s fuse box, and constantly harassing the dissidents, who were repeatedly denied safe passage out of the country.
The stranded dissidents were rescued this month as part of a “precise operation” by the United States and taken into American territory. The operation, whose details have not been publicly disclosed at press time, has been dubbed by Venezuelan and international media as Operation Guacamaya (“Macaw”) in reference to the bird species that inhabits Caracas.
On Saturday, the group appeared in public for the first time at a press conference following a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday. Magalli Meda, who served as Machado’s campaign chief, confirmed that their liberation was thanks to an operation carried out by the administration of President Donald Trump, dismissing claims that their release was the product of alleged negotiations between the United States and the Maduro regime. The group also emphasized Argentina’s role in coordinating their departure from Venezuela.
“I completely deny that the regime had anything to do with our freedom. It was an operation of President Trump’s administration and Secretary Marco Rubio,” Meda told reporters.
“That we are sitting here is the miracle of a very complex process that required a strategic operation of many people with enormous risks,” she added.
Meda stressed that the Maduro regime is conducting “state terrorism that is harassing the entire nation,” and asserted that Interior Minister and wanted drug lord Diosdado Cabello is “burying” the Maduro regime.
“There are no more excuses for anything. Today, the country is under siege, threatened and persecuted,” Meda said. “State terrorism has declared war on all Venezuelans. This situation cannot be normalized, Venezuela can only be liberated.”
Omar González, a former lawmaker, described the rescue operation as one of the “most spectacular rescues in the history of escapes ever recorded” and stressed that “only daring, bravery, coordination, and planning made it possible for us to be here.”
“Maduro’s tyranny constantly threatened the physical integrity of those of us who are here. Argentina’s diplomatic headquarters in Caracas was surrounded by elite corps. There were elite corps, drones, dogs to watch us and attack us,” he detailed. “There was the intention to liquidate us physically. And politically, not to mention.”
“In due time it will be known how the rescue went,” he promised, “It was a spectacular operation.”
Pedro Urruchurtu — the international coordinator of Machado’s Vente Venezuela, the country’s only mainstream center-right party — acknowledged the support of several nations and international personalities in their case and thanked the government of Argentina for “welcoming us from day one.” Urruchurtu pointed out the importance of “the presence of that Brazilian flag” at the diplomatic headquarters after it took custody of the facility in August.
“We lived 14 months in captivity. When we entered the embassy we decided to seek protection. This created a serious precedent in the eyes of the world. The regime killed diplomatic asylum,” Urruchurtu said. “Today it operates a hostage diplomacy, it operates blackmail, extortion and threats. Diplomacy with Venezuela has failed, our case is an example.”
After meeting with the five Venezuelan dissidents on Friday, Sec. Rubio expressed on social media that it was an honor to meet with the group and asserted that “their courage inspires all working towards more democratic futures.”
Their circumstances, he highlighted, were especially important to raise awareness after the Maduro regime arrested opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa on Friday.
Guanipa is another close associate of Machado who also went into hiding in the aftermath of the fraudulent July 28, 2024, presidential election. Guanipa’s Twitter account published a message on Friday announcing his detention that read, “brothers, if you are reading this, it is because I have been kidnapped by the forces of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.”
The Maduro regime accused Guanipa of leading a “network of terrorism and conspiracy” aimed at subverting the socialist regime’s Sunday sham regional and legislative elections.
Interior Minister Cabello claimed that “notebooks and agendas” were allegedly found in Guanipa’s hiding place containing “groups, financing, and places designated for terrorist attacks” in places such as embassies, hospitals, police headquarters, and others. In recent days, the Maduro regime detained dozens of Venezuelan and foreign nationals, accusing them of allegedly being “mercenaries” that sought to plot against the sham election.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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