Rubio: Venezuelan Opposition Refugees Have Been Rescued from a Caracas Embassy and Are Now in the United States…

by Tim Padgett at WLRN Public Media

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday night that five leading Venezuelan opposition figures sought by the country’s dictatorship had been “rescued” from the Argentine embassy in Caracas — where they’d taken refuge last year — in a “precise” operation.

All of the “hostages,” as Rubio described them on his X account, “are now safely on U.S. soil.”

The group — whom the President-Dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime had accused of sedition, which human rights groups called a bogus charge — took asylum in the Argentine embassy in March of 2024, more than 400 days ago.

Those freed include top Machado aide Magalli Meda, Vente spokeswoman Claudia Macero, Vente international coordinator Pedro Urruchurtu, former opposition Congressman Omar González and election strategist Humberto Villalobos.

Rubio did not elaborate on what exactly the “rescue operation” entailed; what the U.S.’s exact involvement was, or if the Venezuelan government had been aware of it as well as part of a negotiation.

One person close to the freed opposition figures said he was told…