Chilean President Gabriel Boric appointed a new ambassador to Venezuela on Thursday. Jaime Gazmuri Mujica, former Chilean ambassador to Brazil, is expected to fill the position that has been vacant since 2018.
The designation comes after a migratory crisis that occurred on the border between Chile and Peru involving hundreds of Venezuelans who were trying to leave Chilean territory to return to their country of origin.
The militarization of both sides of the border decreed by Lima and Santiago forced the migrants to remain homeless for two weeks in the Chilean city of Arica, which borders the south of the Peruvian province of Tacna. The situation was only resolved on May 7, when Venezuela sent a humanitarian plane to repatriate the Venezuelans.
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In early March, shortly after militarizing the provinces and cities bordering Bolivia and Peru, Boric adopted a conservative tone against migrants and said that the inhabitants of these regions had to “experience the effects of the massive and irregular inflow of people arriving to our country looking for opportunities”.
“Some of them also come with intentions to commit crimes and I want to be very clear when I say that these people who come to commit crimes are not welcome. We will pursue them and we will make, within the rule of law, their life impossible. “, said the Chilean president at the time.
After the incident, Boric sent a diplomatic representative to Caracas to negotiate humanitarian and migration agreements.
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Since 2018, Chile has not had an ambassador in Venezuela and only had a chargé d’affaires in the country. At the time, the then conservative president Sebastián Piñera decided not to appoint a diplomatic representative because he considered that the Venezuelan presidential elections of that year had supposedly been “fraudulent”.
One of the most active figures in the so-called Grupo de Lima, a group of South American countries that joined the campaign of “maximum pressure” against Maduro elaborated by the USA, Piñera recognized the fictitious presidential mandate of former deputy Juan Guaidó and provided broad support for the coup initiatives by the Venezuelan opposition.
With the victory of candidates from the progressive field in South America, the Lima Group lost strength and the countries returned to normalize relations with Caracas. Colombia, governed by Gustavo Petro, Brazil, governed by Lula, Argentina, presided over by Alberto Fernández, and Bolivia, under Luis Arce, have already re-established relations with Venezuela.
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Thus, Chile becomes the fifth South American country to review its position in relation to Venezuela after the crisis triggered by Guaidó. Even Paraguay’s president-elect, Santiago Peña, who is due to take office in August, has already promised to normalize diplomatic ties with the Venezuelan government.
Frictions between Boric and Maduro
Despite being included in the so-called “return of the progressives” to governments in South America, Boric is the president who has adopted a more hostile stance towards Venezuela.
The president has attacked the Maduro government on several occasions for alleged “human rights violations” in the country. In September last year, during a speech at Columbia University, in New York, Boric went so far as to say that someone who claims to be on the left and who does not condemn Venezuela and Nicaragua would be a “hypocrite”.
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In addition, in the same period, the Chilean president even accused Caracas of putting “tremendous pressure” on Chile due to the intense migratory wave of Venezuelans.
Boric’s attacks were responded to by Venezuela, mainly by Chavista deputy Diosdado Cabello, vice-president of the ruling PSUV party. “If you think we are going to capitulate because a fool like Boric comes to talk nonsense about Venezuela, you are wrong,” said the parliamentarian.
Editing: Nicolau Soares
