Passport applications. Asylum requests. Consular procedures. In both Buenos Aires and Caracas, it’s all up in the air after a post-electoral diplomatic dispute saw President Nicolás Maduro recall Venezuela’s diplomatic personnel from Argentina and expel their Caracas counterparts.

Argentine diplomats left Venezuela on Thursday. Brazil took over the compound in Caracas and will be in charge of representing Argentina’s interests in Venezuela. This means the Brazilian Foreign Ministry is now responsible for the six Venezuelan opposition aides who have been living in the Argentine embassy seeking asylum since March.

However, the aides aren’t the only ones whose future is hanging in the balance. The departure of Venezuelan diplomatic personnel from Buenos Aires is also causing major disruption for many of the 220,000 Venezuelans living in Argentina.

On Tuesday night, hundreds of Venezuelans gathered outside their embassy in Buenos Aires to protest Sunday’s election results. Venezuelan authorities claimed that President Nicolás Maduro had won a third straight term. However, the Venezuelan opposition has claimed the ballot was fraudulent, and leaders around the world have refused to recognize the results, calling on the government to publish the electoral records so the numbers can be verified.

The embassy building was mostly empty, a source close to the matter told the Herald. One of its windows, shattered after someone threw a rock at it during Sunday night’s protests, had not been fixed.

“The consular corps has........

© Buenos Aires Herald