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A12 WORLD NEWS
Monday 13 May 2019

Maduro’s foes fill embassies in Venezuela as crisis deepens

By JOSHUA GOODMAN side an embassy is a per-
Associated Press manent reminder for that
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) country, its media and its
— From the lush tropical people that Nicolás Mad-
garden of the Chilean am- uro isn’t just a problem for
bassador’s residence, Ven- Venezuelans,” said Gue-
ezuelan opposition leader vara. “Imagine if Nancy
Freddy Guevara takes a Pelosi had to run to an em-
much-anticipated call bassy because President
from a foreign diplomat Trump wanted to send her
and asks him to protect a to prison, or the head of
fellow lawmaker fleeing congress in France had to
President Nicolás Maduro’s hide inside the Spanish em-
latest crackdown. bassy because of Macron.”
“Gracias, Gracias ambas- He was welcomed with
sador. In the name of all of open arms by Chile’s
us,” said Guevara speaking then-ambassador, Pedro
into his cellphone as he sits Ramirez, who had already
down for a rare interview taken in Roberto Enriquez,
inside the diplomatic com- president of the conserva-
pound that has been his tive COPEI party. Two years
uneasy and isolating home later, Enriquez is still living in
the past 18 months. the compound.
“You probably think this At one point, Ramirez was
was all staged for you, also sheltering five judges
right?” he chuckles while In this Saturday, May 11, 2019 photo, Venezuelan opposition leader Freddy Guevara, exiled at the whose appointment to
tapping out a text message Chilean ambassador’s residence speaks by phone prior a interview with the Associated Press, in the high court by congress
sharing the good news to Caracas, Venezuela. was disallowed by Maduro.
someone in his party. “But Associated Press The jurists, who did request
the last few days have all In the past 10 days, as matic missions, allowing the opposition’s ranks af- asylum, later abandoned
been like this.” Maduro has mopped up them to enter instead as ter several of its stalwarts the residence and slipped
As Venezuela’s crisis deep- from the uprising, three “guests” in a sort of limbo were jailed or exiled. As across the border after
ens, more and more gov- lawmakers have taken ref- waiting for Maduro to fall. vice president of the oppo- Maduro’s government de-
ernment opponents are uge in the ambassadorial For Guevara, that’s allowed sition-controlled congress, nied them safe passage
on the run, facing arrest for residences of Italy and Ar- him to remain politically ac- he was one of the leaders into exile.
their role in a failed military gentina, while opposition tive, holding frequent strat- of anti-Maduro protests in For Ramirez, who had
uprising last week when leader Leopoldo López, egy sessions with Guaidó 2017 that led to more than served as a Cabinet minis-
opposition leader Juan who defied house arrest and other members of their 130 deaths. When the gov- ter in the socialist govern-
Guaidó briefly took control to partake in the putsch, Popular Will party. ernment finally quelled the ment of Salvador Allende,
of a highway with a small is now living with his fam- “I’m like the ghost in a unrest, Guevara was high it was an opportunity to re-
cadre of troops seeking to ily in the Spanish ambassa- haunted house: I can’t on the list of organizers they turn a favor: When Allende
topple Maduro. dor’s residence. Others are leave but if you want to went after. was overthrown in 1973,
But instead of going into hiding out in undisclosed come over you can talk to He appealed for protection Ramirez was arrested and
exile, or to jail as another si- missions while 18 national me,” he says. from Chile in the hope that spent three years in jail be-
lenced martyr of the move- guardsmen who answered Guevara’s decision to seek it would drive home to Ven- fore being exiled to Vene-
ment to oust Maduro, many Guaidó’s call to rebel are refuge inside the ambas- ezuela’s neighbors, many zuela, which took in tens of
dissidents are pounding on holed up in Panama’s em- sador’s residence was part of whom were reluctant to thousands of Chileans fol-
the doors of foreign em- bassy. necessity, part political confront Maduro but now lowing the coup. Ramirez
bassies in a throwback to None have requested asy- strategy. recognize Guaidó as the considered himself an ad-
the dark days of the 1970s, lum, even though countries The 33-year-old cut his country’s rightful leader, mirer of Chavez but quickly
when far bloodier mili- in Latin America have a political teeth during stu- the spillover risks from a came to view his successor
tary dictatorships in South tradition of granting such dent protests against Hugo spiraling political and eco- Maduro as a dictator after
America hunted down their status to political outcasts Chavez a decade ago nomic crisis. returning to Venezuela as
opponents. showing up at their diplo- and quickly rose through “Every lawmaker living in- ambassador in 2014.q