Announcement comes as Venezuela faces growing diplomatic isolation following election that opposition says was stolen.
The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ended Brazil’s authority to represent Argentine interests in the country, in the latest example of post-election tensions.
The decision would halt Brazil’s stewardship of Argentina’s embassy in Caracas, which currently shelters six Venezuelan opposition members seeking asylum.
In a statement on Saturday, Maduro’s government said that the decision was effective immediately, arguing, without proof, that assassination attempts were being planned within the diplomatic facility.
Maduro and his allies have sought to crack down on opposition members, following a contested presidential election in July.
But Brazil pushed back, releasing its own statement that it would not surrender its authority over the embassy. It also underscored that international law prevents local law enforcement from entering diplomatic facilities without permission.
“The Brazilian government highlights in this context, under the terms of the Vienna Conventions, the inviolability of the facilities of the Argentine diplomatic mission,” the Brazilian government said in a press release.
Argentina had severed relations with the Maduro government, and Brazil agreed to take custody of the embassy in order to continue the representation of Argentine interests in Venezuela. Brazil said that it would continue to do so until Venezuela selects another government to oversee those responsibilities.
On Friday evening, the asylum seekers staying in the Argentine embassy posted on social media that the building appeared to be under surveillance and had lost electricity. Videos showed patrols from the government’s intelligence agency outside.
The six opposition members first sought shelter in the Argentine embassy in March, after government prosecutors ordered their arrest on conspiracy charges.
The announcement comes as the Maduro government faces growing pressure at home and abroad after the July 28 presidential election.
In the hours after the polls closed, Maduro’s government proclaimed it had won a third term, without offering the usual breakdown of the vote tallies. The country’s opposition — which had led by wide margins in pre-election polling — dismissed that result as fraudulent.
Brazil, alongside a number of South American governments, has said that it will not accept Maduro’s victory unless the government publishes information to corroborate its claims.
Opposition leaders have put forward thousands of precinct-level tally sheets that they say show candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia receiving twice as many votes as Maduro.
Protests have erupted throughout the country since the July election, calling for transparency and Maduro to step down.
But Maduro’s government has responded with violence and hundreds of arrests. This week, for instance, it issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez himself, after he failed to appear for a summons.
Maduro’s government had called upon the opposition leader to respond to allegations of conspiracy, falsifying official documents, instigating others to break the law and usurping official powers.
The international rights watchdog Human Rights Watch released a report earlier this week finding that Venezuelan security forces have killed at least 23 protesters since the unrest began, in a crackdown that the group denounced as “shockingly brutal”.
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