Argentina pulls credentials from Guaido envoy

Argentina's new government has withdrawn the diplomatic credentials of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido's representative in Buenos Aires.

Argentina's foreign ministry informed Elisa Trotta Gamus of "the end to your special mission in the Argentinian Republic" in a 6 January letter that was seen by Argus.

Argentina's former president Mauricio Macri, who was succeeded by Alberto Fernandez on 10 December, had recognized Trotta as Venezuela's diplomatic envoy in Buenos Aires shortly after Guaido invoked his constitutional claim to an interim presidency on 23 January 2019.

Argentina was one of several countries in the region, plus the US, the EU and Canada, that recognized Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate president in place of Nicolas Maduro.

Center-left president Fernandez has shifted Argentina's stance away from Guaido in favor of a non-interventionist posture espoused by Uruguay and Mexico, two Latin American nations that do not recognize Guaido's interim presidency.

Neither Guaido nor his Bogota-based envoy for foreign affairs, Julio Borges, commented on Argentina's decision to strip the credentials from the opposition representative. It was not immediately clear whether the Fernandez government would now invite Maduro to restore a diplomatic presence in Buenos Aires.

Since taking office last month, Fernandez's administration appears to be striving for a middle ground on Venezuela, where years of economic and political crisis have driven more than 4.5mn people to flee, including many to Argentina.

On 5 January, Argentina condemned the blockade of the opposition-controlled National Assembly by Venezuelan security forces, preventing Guaido from entering and paving the way for a parallel leadership vote orchestrated by the government and backed by Russia.

"Recovering the dialogue between the political parties in Venezuela in a framework of respect of liberty and institutional mechanisms is the Argentinian government's objective in order to alleviate the suffering of millions of Venezuelans inside and outside the country," Argentina's foreign ministry said.

Argentina pointedly did not sign on to a new statement by the Lima Group that characterized the Maduro presidency as a "dictatorial regime."

The Lima Group is comprised of Latin American countries plus Canada that coordinate peaceful actions to restore democracy in Venezuela. The Macri administration had been among the Lima Group's most prominent members.

Argentina had been a close ally of the government of Maduro and his long-serving late predecessor Hugo Chavez under the administration of Cristina Fernandez, who is now vice president and no relation to the president, and her predecessor and late husband Nestor Kirchner.

By Daniel Politi and Patricia Garip