Venezuela’s government announced this February 26th that the European Union’s diplomatic representative in Caracas, Brilhante Pedrosa, was considered “persona non grata”[1]. The representative was given 72 hours to leave the country as a response to the new set of sanctions the EU enacted against 19 more members of the Venezuelan pro-Maduro government. Currently, there are a total of 55 members of the government under EU sanctions.

Interestingly, this seems like a re-do of the events of June 2020, when Ms Pedrosa was also declared persona non-grata after the EU enacted sanctions against 11 members of the Venezuelan government, only for Maduro’s government to back down shortly after[2].

This situation only adds to the already extensive list of times the Venezuelan government under Nicolas Maduro has reduced or severed ties with governments that criticize the continuous violations of Human Rights in Venezuela.

In 2019, after the Member of the National Assembly Juan Guaidó declared himself President in Charge of the country, Maduro’s government turned against some countries that recognized Guaidó as the new head of state. Venezuela broke diplomatic relations with the US[3] in January and with Colombia[4] in February right after the incident of Guaidó. In the last decades, Venezuela’s relations with Washington have been tense. Venezuelan-Colombian ties have also been thorny, with Venezuela constantly closing the borders with Colombia after any diferendum. 

Between 2019 and 2020, the governments of Paraguay[5], Bolivia[6] and Brazil[7] either broke or reduced to the minimum their ties with Venezuela. The relations with Bolivia were restored in November 2020, though[8]. To this can be added other diplomatic crises along the years, such as those with Panama in 2014 or Germany in 2019.

In summary, Venezuela is losing slow but steady connections with other nations, particularly with the West and its Latin American neighbours. It happens partly due to the violation of Human Rights in Venezuela and partly due to Maduro’s tendency of shutting down international criticism by cutting diplomatic relations.

At first glance, this might seem like a desperate move to limit international pressure inside the country. However, this also has become a common tactic of the Venezuelan foreign ministry to ask for “extra-deals” when democracies wish to restore relations to protect their nationals in Venezuela or monitor Human Rights violations[9]. The “persona non grata” diplomacy, therefore, has become an unconventional mean for Venezuela to obtain deals in exchange for rights to enter in other countries.

[1] DW.COM. 2021. Expulsada embajadora de la UE dejará Venezuela el martes | DW | 27.02.2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.dw.com/es/expulsada-embajadora-de-la-ue-dejar%C3%A1-venezuela-el-martes/a-56727204> [Accessed 5 March 2021].

[2] DW.COM. 2020. Venezuela da marcha atrás y suspende expulsión de embajadora de la UE | DW | 02.07.2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.dw.com/es/venezuela-da-marcha-atr%C3%A1s-y-suspende-expulsi%C3%B3n-de-embajadora-de-la-ue/a-54032247> [Accessed 5 March 2021].

[3] BBC News Mundo. 2019. Venezuela rompe relaciones con "el gobierno imperialista de Estados Unidos" - BBC News Mundo. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-46979316> [Accessed 5 March 2021].

[4] www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-47341056

[5] CNN. 2019. Paraguay rompe relaciones diplomáticas con Venezuela, anuncia el presidente | CNN. [online] Available at: <https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2019/01/10/paraguay-rompe-relaciones-diplomaticas-con-venezuela-anuncia-el-presidente/> [Accessed 5 March 2021].

[6]DW.COM. 2019. Bolivia rompe relaciones con Venezuela y se retira de la Alianza Bolivariana ALBA | DW | 15.11.2019. [online] Available at: <https://www.dw.com/es/bolivia-rompe-relaciones-con-venezuela-y-se-retira-de-la-alianza-bolivariana-alba/a-51271927> [Accessed 5 March 2021].

[7] DW.COM. 2020. Brasil retira algunos de sus diplomáticos de Venezuela | DW | 05.03.2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.dw.com/es/brasil-retira-algunos-de-sus-diplom%C3%A1ticos-de-venezuela/a-52657584> [Accessed 5 March 2021].

[8] DW.COM. 2020. Nuevo Gobierno de Bolivia restablece relaciones con Venezuela | DW | 11.11.2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.dw.com/es/nuevo-gobierno-de-bolivia-restablece-relaciones-con-venezuela/a-55570968> [Accessed 5 March 2021].

[9] France 24. 2020. Maduro le pide a Colombia restablecer las relaciones consulares y Duque dice que no aceptará chantajes. [online] Available at: <https://www.france24.com/es/20200130-maduro-le-pide-a-colombia-restablecer-las-relaciones-consulares> [Accessed 5 March 2021].

~ The views represented in this blog post do not necessarily represent those of the Brandt School. ~