On December 3, in the framework of the Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court held in The Hague, Argentina denounced that its embassy in Caracas is the object of “siege by police forces and unidentified armed actors,” which it described as “reprisal for having granted asylum to people whose integrity was at risk for political reasons.” In its intervention, Argentina “deeply regretted the lack of substantive progress in the investigations of the Prosecutor’s Office” and called for combating impunity in Venezuela, since events such as those that occurred in its embassy can be repeated or worsened.
The legal defense of the six people granted asylum has joined the complaint of siege for leaving the Argentine embassy without electricity, water and food, and preventing the entry of actors from other countries, an arbitrary situation that has lasted for more than two weeks, he indicated. In this regard, the legal defense expressed that Venezuela has threatened ambassadors accredited in Caracas not to approach the premises and to ignore the situation, which represents an unacceptable blackmail tactic. In another edition, AlertaVenezuela warned of Venezuela’s diplomatic bullying, when the country dared in the Human Rights Council threatening to “take the pertinent diplomatic and political measures, in the bilateral and multilateral sphere” against the countries that approved the first renewal of the mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission, in October 2022.
On December 3, the asylees asked the international community to act in response to the increase in harassment by Maduro’s security agencies, including the use of drones and photographers from nearby buildings, in order to intimidate them. In a video published on December 6, one of the asylees activists, Omar González, warned that food and medicine delivery workers who take orders to the legation are detained at the various checkpoints set up around the diplomatic headquarters and “accuse them of being suspected of terrorism.” The asylees said that, due to the blockade, they have to ration the water and food they have left, and that they have access to electricity thanks to a “small local power plant.” Venezuela is trying to turn the diplomatic headquarters into one of its prisons, subjecting those in the embassy to precarious living conditions that amount to inhuman treatment, at the very least.
The Venezuelan State must respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions and facilitate the conditions for their operation, as ordered by articles 22.1 and 25 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. In accordance with article 22.2 of the said treaty, Venezuela as the receiving State also assumes “the special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.” Even more, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights determined, in its Advisory Opinion OC-25/18 on the Institution of Asylum, that even the suspicion of improper use of the premises of the diplomatic mission, for example, in the case of violation of local laws in situations involving the granting of diplomatic asylum, does not authorize the receiving State to forcibly enter the premises of the diplomatic mission, since Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations does not establish any exception to the inviolability of the premises of the diplomatic mission. In a complementary sense, the International Court of Justice, in the case of the United States Diplomatic and Consular Staff in Tehran, pointed out that the failure to protect the inviolability of the premises of the diplomatic mission constitutes an omission that may compromise the international responsibility of the receiving State.
On December 9, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, through a spokesperson, recalled “the principle of inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises,” referring to the fact that he is “aware of reports of raids by Venezuelan security personnel on buildings around the Argentine embassy in Caracas.” It is evident that with the unpunished actions of the security forces that block the entry of basic supplies, monitor and threaten the life, integrity and freedom of the activists, as well as forcibly enter the legation, Venezuela is violating the peace of the mission and thus its inviolability, in contravention of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, to the detriment of Argentina, the activists, and the basic foundations of the international order inspired by the values of democracy and human rights.
On the other hand, the Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, signed in Caracas, establishes in its article XII that once asylum has been granted and the asylee departure from the territory has been requested by the asylum-granting State, “the territorial State is under obligation to grant immediately, except in case of force majeure, the necessary guarantees, referred to in Article V, as well as the corresponding safe-conduct.” These guarantees are those required “to the end that his life, liberty, or personal integrity may not be endangered,” according to its article V. As it usually does with its nationals, the Venezuelan government denies guarantees of human rights, and on the contrary, increases the seriousness of its acts, despite the calls of Argentina, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Panama, the United States, among others countries.
But the legal implications in the field of International Law are going further. Venezuela is not only undermining a fundamental pillar of international law, such as the institution of asylum, but is also attacking another State in its facilities in another country, which entails a disregard for the international principles that must govern relations between States on non-aggression, peace and mutual respect, as promoted by the Charter of the United Nations. It should be remembered that, in order to achieve the purposes of the United Nations, the fourth principle of the Charter prescribes that “all Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity (…) of any state”, as provided for in its article 2. With its actions, Venezuela is undermining its bilateral relationship with Argentina and compromising the purpose of international peace and security by carrying out an act of aggression incompatible with the UN Charter. The international community cannot allow this abuse to not receive a proportional response.
Venezuela and the international community should look in the mirror of Ecuador’s recent aggression against the Mexican embassy. This act was denounced by Nicolás Maduro himself and is now being reproduced through the actions of his security agencies. There are also humanitarian and even international criminal law implications in light of the crime of politically motivated persecution. The Venezuelan State must immediately cease the harassment against the embassy and the asylees, facilitate their safe-conduct, and guarantee their freedom, physical integrity and other human rights. But for this to be possible, the international community should increase the pressure and enforce all the appropriate measures, in accordance with international law, to stop the aggression. It is the international order as we know it that is at stake by a tyrant.