Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Americas
Newsline: Argentina ramps up pressure on Venezuela over opposition embassy refugees
Argentina’s government is set to ramp up pressure on Venezuela to grant safe passage to six opposition aides who had sought refuge in its embassy in Caracas, official sources said, adding they were at physical risk if they didn’t leave the country. Two senior Argentine officials told Reuters that the administration of President Nicolas Maduro, who has looked to head off political rivals ahead of July presidential elections, had reneged on promises to allow the six to safely leave the country. (https://neuters.de/world/americas/argentina-ramps-up-pressure-venezuela-over-opposition-embassy-refugees-2024-05-13/) In March, aides to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado requested asylum at the Argentine embassy in Caracas, after a local prosecutor issued arrest warrants against them for conspiracy. Machado, who has denied any allegations of misconduct by her team, was blocked from being a candidate in the upcoming election despite being the front-runner in polls. Maduro’s government has been going after political opposition candidates, including Machado, despite electoral commitments signed last year, a trend that saw Washington reimpose broad oil sanctions in April. In April, Reuters reported, citing a Venezuelan official source, that Maduro’s socialist government would allow the six aides to leave safely, in order to travel to Buenos Aires. However, senior Argentine sources from the government of right-wing libertarian Javier Milei, told Reuters no such concession was ever granted. “Venezuela is not issuing safe-conduct passes, it is not complying with what was agreed upon or with the (1954) Convention on Diplomatic Asylum”, said one of the sources, an official from Argentina’s foreign ministry. “In the official Argentine residence in Caracas is the entire Machado campaign office, who are politically persecuted,” the person added, asking not to be named. “They have to leave Caracas because their physical integrity is in danger.” Venezuela’s Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Argentine comments, previously unreported, mark an important hardening of tone on the embassy issue from the country against Maduro, putting diplomatic pressure on him just months before the oil-rich country’s controversial election.
Newsline: Chinese embassy in Canada refutes foreign interference accusations
The Chinese embassy in Canada expressed “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to the baseless accusation of “China’s interference in Canada’s internal affairs,” according to its spokesperson. The initial report released by Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission on Friday launched a scathing attack on countries including China, Russia and India, accusing them of interfering in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 general elections. “We have never meddled in Canada’s internal affairs, nor do we have any intention to do so. The attempts by certain Canadian politicians to shift blame onto China for their own electoral failures are unfair and unethical, revealing their self-serving and shameless nature,” the spokesperson said, adding that China has consistently upheld the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs. The report is riddled with contradictions and ideological bias and lacks credibility. It uses terms like “may,” “might,” “potential” and other misleading words. It claims to derive conclusions from “intelligence” yet also states that the intelligence has not been proven. “Not all of the information provided below necessarily has been corroborated or fully assessed.” The spokesperson said that such contradictory statements undermine the Report’s validity and suggest a deliberate attempt to mislead the public. (http://www.china.org.cn/world/Off_the_Wire/2024-05/04/content_117165933.htm) Canada has a record of grossly interfering in China’s domestic affairs on issues concerning China’s core interests, including Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang and Hong Kong, the spokesperson added. It seeks to undermine China’s security and stability by overtly and covertly condoning and supporting separatist activities. These are clear and well-grounded facts. According to the spokesperson, Canada’s actions are akin to a thief calling on others to catch a thief.
Newsline: Ecuador defends raid on the Mexican Embassy
Ecuador defended its storming of the Mexican Embassy in Quito last month, telling judges at the United Nations’ top court that it acted to take in “a common criminal” — Ecuador’s former vice president — who was holed up inside the diplomatic post. (https://apnews.com/article/mexico-ecuador-embassy-icj-) The statement by lawyers for Ecuador was part of hearings in a case filed by Mexico at the International Court of Justice that accuses Quito of blatantly violating international treaties by storming the embassy to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas. The April 5 raid, hours after Mexico granted asylum to Glas, further fueled tensions that had been brewing between the two countries since the former vice president, a convicted criminal and fugitive, took refuge at the embassy in December. Leaders across Latin America condemned the raid as a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Newsline: Brazil Justice says no evidence Bolsonaro sought asylum in Hungarian embassy
Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes on Wednesday closed an investigation into whether former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro sought asylum at the Hungarian embassy in February, citing lack of evidence. The New York Times revealed via security video footage that Bolsonaro spent two nights at the Hungarian embassy in Brasilia between Feb. 12 and 14, right after his passport was seized in an investigation into an alleged military coup plot. “There are no concrete elements that indicate … that the investigated party intended to obtain diplomatic asylum in order to flee the country and, consequently, jeopardize the ongoing criminal investigation,” Moraes said in a written decision. (https://neuters.de/world/americas/brazil-justice-says-no-evidence-bolsonaro-sought-asylum-hungarian-embassy-2024-04-24/) The embassy stay aroused suspicions that he might seek diplomatic asylum to avoid the coup plot probe and other criminal investigations. Bolsonaro said the stay was to maintain the close diplomatic relationship he has with Hungary, which is governed by nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban, a political ally of Bolsonaro. Moraes said Bolsonaro’s embassy visit had not violated any of the precautionary measures imposed on him in a previous court order, such as bans on making contact with other people under investigation for planning a coup and on leaving the country, which included an order to hand over all passports.
Newsline: Top US diplomat eyes better US-China ties
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday with U.S.-China ties on a steadier footing, but with a daunting array of unresolved issues threatening the stability of relations between the global rivals. Blinken will meet with business leaders before heading to Beijing for talks on Friday with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and a likely meeting with President Xi Jinping. Blinken, in a short video statement posted to X with the Shanghai skyline in the background, said curbing the flow of fentanyl and synthetic opioid substances to the U.S. from China was one of several issues he was in China to work on. “Face to face diplomacy matters,” he said. “It is important for avoiding miscommunications and misperceptions, and to advance the interests of the American people.” (https://neuters.de/world/better-us-china-ties-still-deep-disagreements-blinken-starts-visit-2024-04-24/) Blinken’s visit is the latest high-level contact between the two nations that, along with working groups on issues from global trade to military communication, have tempered the public acrimony that drove relations to historic lows early last year. But Washington and Beijing have made little headway on curbing China’s supply of chemicals used to make fentanyl, Taiwan remains a flashpoint, and strains are intensifying over China’s backing of Russia.
Newsline: China’s ambassador to Canada leaves his post
Chinese ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, who has served since 2019, has left his post and returned to China, a source familiar with the matter said, with the news emerging during a senior Canadian diplomat’s visit to the Asian nation. (https://neuters.de/world/americas/chinas-ambassador-canada-leaves-his-post-2024-04-21/) Further details into why he left his post were not immediately available. The Chinese embassy in Ottawa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China’s foreign ministry said earlier that Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu held talks with visiting Canadian Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison and the two discussed “China-Canada relations and other issues of mutual interest and concern.” The Chinese ambassador’s departure was first reported by the Globe and Mail. Cong’s posting ended on April 9 and came as a surprise to some in the diplomatic corps because of its abruptness, the newspaper said, citing sources. Relations between Ottawa and Beijing have been tense since 2018 when Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies, on a U.S. warrant. Later, Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were taken into custody by China. China had detained the two Canadian men for more than 1,000 days in a step that was at the center of Ottawa and Washington’s dispute with Beijing. The men were released in 2021 on the same day the U.S. Justice Department dropped its extradition request for Meng and she returned to China.
Newsline: Honduras recalls top diplomat in Ecuador over Mexico embassy raid
Honduras is recalling its senior diplomat in Ecuador, the Central American country’s foreign minister announced on Tuesday, in the latest action taken in response to Ecuador’s shocking raid this month on the Mexican embassy in Quito. Foreign Minister Enrique Reina said the Honduran business manager, Clarivel Vallecillo, who has been stationed at the embassy, will return to Tegucigalpa for consultations, stressing that Honduras backs Mexico’s recently-filed case against Ecuador in the U.N.’s International Court of Justice. (https://neuters.de/world/americas/honduras-recalls-top-diplomat-ecuador-over-mexico-embassy-raid-2024-04-16/) The April 5 raid on the Mexican embassy to arrest former Ecuadorean Vice President Jorge Glas triggered an abrupt break in relations between Mexico City and Quito, as well as wave of condemnation for the decision by Ecuador’s government to force its way into the facility.
Newsline: Venezuela closes embassy in Ecuador
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure of his government’s embassy and two consulates in Ecuador in protest of Ecuador’s detention of former Vice President Jorge Glas, the Venezuelan information ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. (https://neuters.de/world/americas/venezuelas-maduro-orders-embassy-ecuador-closed-2024-04-16/) Ecuadorean police arrested Glas, twice convicted of corruption, on April 5, removing him from the Mexican embassy where he had been living since December. The arrest prompted Mexico, which had offered Glas political asylum, to suspend diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
Newsline: Top US diplomat for East Asia visits China April 14-16
The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia will visit China starting on Sunday, the State Department said, just days after President Joe Biden held a summit with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines that focused on China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink will travel to China April 14-16, and White House National Security Council Senior Director for China and Taiwan Affairs Sarah Beran will accompany him, the department said in a statement. They will meet with Chinese officials “as part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and to responsibly manage competition,” the statement said. (https://neuters.de/world/us-assistant-secretary-state-kritenbrink-visit-china-april-14-16-2024-04-13/) The Philippines and China had several maritime run-ins last month that included the use of water cannon and heated verbal exchanges. The disputes center on the Second Thomas Shoal, home to a small number of Filipino troops stationed on a warship that Manila grounded there in 1999 to reinforce its sovereignty claims. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including the maritime economic zones of neighboring nations. The Second Thomas Shoal is within the Philippines’ 200-mile (320-km) exclusive economic zone. A 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration found that China’s sweeping claims have no legal basis.
Newsline: US ex-diplomat sentenced to 15 years for spying for Cuba over decades
A former U.S. diplomat was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday after admitting to acting as an agent of Cuba in what the Justice Department has called one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the U.S. government. Victor Manuel Rocha, who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, pleaded guilty to two charges including acting as an illegal foreign agent. He was initially charged in December. Rocha, 73, secretly supported Cuba’s ruling Communist Party and aided the country’s intelligence gathering against Washington for more than four decades, including during a 20-year career in the State Department, according to U.S. prosecutors. “Today’s plea brings an end to more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by Mr. Rocha,” David Newman, a senior national security official at the U.S. Justice Department said during a press conference in Miami. “For most of his life, Mr. Rocha lived a lie.” (https://neuters.de/world/americas/us-ex-diplomat-sentenced-15-years-spying-cuba-over-decades-2024-04-12/) Rocha admitted his decades of work for Cuba and boasted about his ability to avoid detection in a series of meetings in 2022 and 2023 with an undercover FBI agent who posed as a representative of Cuba’s foreign intelligence service, according to a criminal complaint filed in Miami federal court. A lawyer for Rocha did not respond to requests for comment. Rocha agreed to plead guilty as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that requires him to divulge details of his interactions with Cuban intelligence. But U.S. officials said they may never know the full extent of Rocha’s cooperation with Havana. Rocha sought out positions that would give him access to sensitive information and influence over U.S. foreign policy, according to prosecutors. Rocha worked for the State Department from 1981 to 2002, including as a member of the White House’s National Security Council from 1994 to 1995, according to court documents.
Diplomatic Briefing 