Venezuela censors “vandalization” of its consular headquarters in Colombia

Venezuela denounces that its consular headquarters in Bogotá is the target of “permanent vandalization” and demands that the Colombian Government respect and safeguard it. On Monday, there was a serious fire at the headquarters of the Venezuelan consulate in Bogotá, the Colombian capital, which closed its doors in February 2019 after the Government of Caracas, chaired by Nicolás Maduro, broke relations with the neighboring country by holding the Administration of Iván Duque responsible for providing support to destabilizing plans against the peace and stability of the Venezuelan nation.

In reaction, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry published a statement in which it categorically rejects that the headquarters of the Consulate General in Bogotá is the object, since 2019, of illegal acts permanently, incurring the receiving State by action or omission in a flagrant and repeated violation of the essential norms on which diplomatic and consular relations are based. Faced with this situation, Caracas asks the Colombian Government for the “due respect and protection” of the Venezuelan diplomatic and consular headquarters, stressing that it is an international responsibility of the receiving State.

“The lack of protection and protection of this consular headquarters violates the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations in its articles 22 and 45, to which both States are parties,” he insists. After emphasizing that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is attached to the principles of the Vienna Convention, Caracas reminds the Duque government that the “premises of the mission are inviolable.” “The receiving State has a special obligation to take all appropriate measures to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent the tranquillity of the mission from being disturbed or its dignity being violated, including in the event of a breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two States, or if a mission is terminated permanently or temporarily”, reads the text.

Sharing 2200 kilometers of border, Caracas and Bogotá maintain a tense confrontation in recent years. The two countries broke off all diplomatic relations in 2019, after Colombia, seconded to the US, recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s “interim president.”

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