Brasilia.- Brazil began withdrawing some of its venezuelan officials, although it has kept its embassy and consulates open in the neighboring country, confirmed diplomatic sources to Efe on Thursday. The removal of Brazilian embassy officials and consulates in Venezuela coincides with a similar movement on the Venezuelan side, which has also withdrawn some of its employees at the diplomatic headquarters in Brasilia.
According to two decrees published in the Official Journal of the Union, for the time being 4 diplomats and 11 Brazilian officials have been withdrawn from the Embassy in Caracas, as well as the consulates of the Venezuelan capital, Ciudad Guayana and the vice-consulate of Santa Elena de Uairén.Relations between Brazil and Venezuela began to erode in 2017, when then-President Michel Temer pushed for the suspension of Caracas del Mercosur, but ties between the two countries were further strengthened after the came to power of the President Jair Bolsonaro, on January 1, 2019.Under the umbrella of the farrightist, the Brazilian government, like 50 other countries, recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as president of that country, a decision that was harshly condemned by the executive of the representative Nicolás Maduro.
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Guaidó, who at the beginning of last year announced that the executive’s powers were awarded as interim president of Venezuela, came to be received in Brasilia by Bolsonaro, who has also recognized Maria Teresa Belandria as representative in Brazil of the opposition leader of Venezuela.Brazil, however, he has not suspended diplomatic relations with Venezuela, as other countries have done so far, among them Canada.Brazil is one of the destinations of the thousands of Venezuelan migrants fleeing the economic and social crises in your country. According to official estimates, over the past two years more than 70,000 Venezuelans have settled in Brazil, a country that together with humanitarian organizations and UN agencies has deployed a vast aid operation in the border areas, mainly in the state of Roraima.
