Brazil police order deportation of former diplomatic representative of Venezuela’s Maduro

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Venezuelan general is accused of corruption, and has been hiding in the Venezuelan embassy to Brazil for the past two years.

Barroso was not always engaged in diplomatic activities. Between 2006 and 2013, that is, for 7 years, he was president of the Foreign Exchange Administration Commission (CADIVI), the agency responsible for the theft of US$25 billion, as denounced by Hugo Chávez’s ex-minister Jorge Giordani.

The ex-minister and Venezuelan military officer Hebert García Plaza, who broke with Chavismo in 2015 and denounced crimes against humanity committed by Maduro’s dictatorship, in 2018 accused Barroso of being “Diosdado Cabello’s protégé.” The former official also pointed out that as a consequence of Barroso’s shady dealings during his years in public administration “the Cabello clan hid in Brazil, as military attaché since 2015.″

The Venezuelan general worked with Cabello since 2001 in the Presidential Office Secretariat, in the Vice-Presidency of the Republic and as the Ministry of Infrastructure’s dispatch general director.

In March 2020, the government of Jair Bolsonaro ordered the recall of “all” its diplomats and foreign service officials in Venezuela, while notifying the Maduro regime to withdraw its representatives from Brazilian territory.

However, the country refused to comply, alleging that the negotiations on the matter on which Brasilia based its claim had never taken place. In addition to its embassy, Venezuela has 6 consulates in its neighboring state.

Months later, in September that year, Brasilia declared the Venezuelan regime’s diplomatic personnel “personae non gratae” in the country. In the notice issued by the authorities at the time, it is stated that the declaration of persona non grata is a legal instrument widely used in international relations, and that its application allows the foreign country to remove such personnel, or for them to remain but with no diplomatic status.

On May 1 this year, Federal Supreme Court Justice Luís Roberto Barroso suspended the Bolsonaro government’s order forcing the Chavista regime’s diplomatic representatives to leave the country. The magistrate accepted an appeal lodged by a deputy of the Workers’ Party (PT), in which he denounced that the measure violated Brazilian legislation and international treaties on human rights and diplomatic relations.

That same month, the Federal District Superintendency opened investigations to deport 5 of Maduro’s representatives: Barroso, María del Pilar García, Ángel Gustavo Rodríguez, Freddy Efraín Meregote and Irene Auxiliadora Rondón. Maduro’s mission on Brazilian soil is headed by Rondón, who this year held a meeting in Brasilia with ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Brazil is part of the over 50 countries that consider Maduro’s government illegitimate and recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the Venezuelan president. The Brazilian government also recognizes the ambassador appointed by Guaidó to Brazil María Teresa Belandria.

1. Relations between Brazil and Venezuela have been strained since Brazil pushed for the suspension of Caracas from MERCOSUR, in August 2017, during the government of President Michel Temer. That same year, Maduro’s dictatorship expelled the then Brazilian ambassador, Rui Pereira.

Since then, Maduro and Bolsonaro have exchanged harsh remarks and accusations against each other.

For the past 2 years, Brazil has been the destination of tens of thousands of Venezuelans fleeing the economic, political and social crisis in their country.

Bolsonaro’s administration is one of the most emphatic regional voices in condemning the Venezuelan dictatorship. After the publication years ago of a UN report denouncing serious human rights violations in the country, the President called for efforts to “extinguish” Maduro’s regime.