Claudia Macero talks with VOZ's Orlando Avendaño at Foro Madrid in Paraguay: 'Diplomacy failed us'

At the IV Regional Meeting of Foro Madrid (Madrid Forum) in Asunción, Paraguay, VOZ Senior Editor Orlando Avendaño had a conversation with Claudia Macero, communications coordinator of Vente Venezuela, the party of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. Macero was one of the hostages who was locked up in the Argentine embassy in Caracas for more than a year due to threats from Nicolás Maduro's regime.

The conversation exposed the great human cost of resisting the intimidation, threats and psychological violence exercised by the Venezuelan regime for months and the diplomatic abandonment suffered by the members of Vente.

Macero spent more than 400 days in the Argentine embassy in Caracas together with Magalli Meda, Pedro Urruchurtu, Humberto Villalobos and Omar González, all key members of Machado's team, confined after receiving harsh threats from Maduro regime. Recently, all were released thanks to "Operation Guacamaya," a secret operation led by the Trump administration. In the interview with Avendaño, Macero recounted in detail the extreme conditions inside the diplomatic headquarters, where they lived without water, without electricity, without privacy and under constant surveillance by the regime.

"Imagine being in a closed space that is not your home, surrounded and only with the food that they let pass. They watched us with drones, with dogs, they recorded from common areas. Sometimes you don't have to physically enter to violate the autonomy of an embassy," she said.

The conversation, which revealed previously unpublished details, also exposed the failure of the international community.

"All the mechanisms that should have been activated failed. Safeguards were promised that were later cancelled. What happened at the embassy is proof of diplomatic silence," Macero said.

"I recognize and thank the work of the Argentine government, but unfortunately Operation Guacamaya is so called because only the guacamayas [macaws] arrived at the embassy. No diplomatic corps in Caracas dared to go to support despite the thousands of letters that were sent," said Vente's communications chief.

Avendaño, a renowned Venezuelan journalist who also has been publicly threatened by the regime's ringleaders, strongly questioned the diplomatic corps in Caracas, which abandoned Vente members to their fate.

"Diplomacy failed not only because it was not up to the task or did not know how to be efficient to confront a criminal regime. In Caracas, unfortunately, there are ambassadors who go to cocktail parties with criminals from the regime, verbigracia the ambassador of Switzerland," said Avendaño, who then highlighted the role of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was involved in the release of those kidnapped in the Argentine embassy.

"The best ambassadors are the least diplomatic, and there is one in particular who is changing the world: Marco Rubio, the most powerful Hispanic man in the world, a great ally of MCM and of you [Macero] in particular, who got involved in an operation to set you free," Avendaño said.

Macero recognized Rubio's work, especially for his clarity in condemning communist regimes in the region, including Cuba and Nicaragua, in addition to Venezuela.

"That operation did not start with my colleagues. I must remember that I left before and it was part of the same operation led by the U.S. We value Marco Rubio's clarity very much, the Secretary of State speaks the truth when he says that there cannot be full freedom in the region when there is a regime like Nicolás Maduro's threatening and committing crimes in the hemisphere," said Macero.

During the interview, Avendaño also recalled the historic role played by the entire Vente Venezuela team in the presidential election of July 28, 2024, when the Venezuelan opposition managed to collect the vast majority of the electoral records that showed a landslide victory against the Maduro regime.

"Last year, all the eyes in the world fell on Venezuela after years of apathy. That is an achievement of María Corina Machado. She, together with her team and you [Macero], achieved an impressive milestone: not winning an election, which had already happened, but showing that you won an election. We Venezuelans knew it, but Lula, Petro, they also had the evidence in their hands, so they could not be as complicit as they would have liked," said Avendaño. "Then the protests, the arrests, Machado's coming out of hiding; the kidnapping of María Corina. So, what expectations are there now, what can happen? Claudia, why do you think we should still have hope as MCM rightly says?"

Macero explained that hope passes, to a great extent, through the clamor and the will of the Venezuelan people to conquer their freedom: "During the presidential campaign, people rose quickly from the disappointment of previous leaderships. They were seas and seas of people. The people understood that it is not normal to live under socialism, under a regime like Maduro's."

In addition, Macero continued, "We have the leadership of MCM and we have Maduro's allies with their hands tied, because they already know that being linked to the tyrant, a violator of fundamental rights, has a very high cost."

However, Macero warned that the regime still has two fundamental weapons on its side: repression and funding.

"There remains the repressive apparatus of the regime, which is being used to kill and kidnap people and make them disappear. That's why MCM is being kept safe," Macero said. "The other thing they are left with is funding. We cannot expect a company to maintain normal business relations with the regime."

Macero therefore called on Foro Madrid's allies to continue to call out companies that intend to continue doing shady business with the regime and push for effective sanctions to further weaken Maduro and his allies.

"There are more than 800 political prisoners in Venezuela. Let's not stop talking about what is happening. Let the truth be the engine of all this," Macero sentenced.